10. Mount Rinjani (3726 m)
The 6 km by 8.5 km oval-shaped caldera is filled partially by a crater lake known as Segara Anak ('Child of the Sea') and is approximately 2000m above sea level and estimated at being around 200m deep); the caldera also contains hot springs. The eruptions of 1994, 1995, and 1996 have formed a small cone, Gunung Baru (or 'New Mountain' - approximately 2300m above sea level) in the center of the caldera and lava flows from these eruptions have entered the lake. This cone has since been renamed Mount Barujari (or 'New Finger').
The highlands are forest clad and mostly underdeveloped. The lowlands are highly cultivated. Rice, soybeans, coffee, tobacco, cotton, cinnamon, and vanilla are the major crops grown in the fertile soils of the island.
The volcano and the caldera are protected by a national park established in 1997. Tourism is increasingly popular with trekkers able to visit the rim, make their way into the caldera or even to make the more arduous climb to the highest point;fatalities, however, are not uncommon. As of July 2009 the summit route was closed due to volcanic activity.from;"Tempo -Mount Rinjani Closed As Eruptions Intensify".
9. Mount Batur (1717 m)
8. Mount Agung (3142 m)
Global cooling often has been linked with major volcanic eruptions. The year 1816 often has been referred to as "the year without a summer". It was a time of significant weather-related disruptions in New England and in Western Europe with killing summer frosts in the United States and Canada. These strange phenomena were attributed to a major eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815 in Indonesia. The volcano threw sulfur dioxide gas into the stratosphere, and the aerosol layer that formed led to brilliant sunsets seen around the world for several years.
However, there is some confusion about the historical evidence that global cooling may be caused by volcanic emissions. Two recent volcanic eruptions have provided contradictory evidence on this point. Mount Agung in 1963 (Indonesia) apparently caused a considerable decrease in temperatures around much of the world, whereas El Chichon in 1982 (Mexico), seemed to have little effect, perhaps because of its different location or because of the El Nino that occurred the same year. El Nino is a Pacific Ocean phenomenon, but it causes worldwide weather variations that may have acted to cancel out the effect of the El Chichon eruption.
From: NASA's Earth Observing Project Science Webpage: Volcanoes and Global Climate Change, May 2000
7. Mount Kelud (1731 m)
The relatively small Kelut stratovolcano contains a summit crater lake that has been the source of some of Indonesia's most deadly eruptions. A cluster of summit lava domes cut by numerous craters has given the summit a very irregular profile. Satellitic cones and lava domes are also located low on the eastern, western, and SSW flanks. Eruptive activity has in general migrated in a clockwise direction around the summit vent complex. More than 30 eruptions have been recorded from Gunung Kelut since 1000 AD. The ejection of water from the crater lake during Kelut's typically short, but violent eruptions has created pyroclastic flows and lahars that have caused widespread fatalities and destruction. The construction of drainage tunnels beginning in 1926 to lower the lake level has greatly reduced the human impact of recent eruptions.From: Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Website, 2000
6. Mount Galunggung (2167 m)
On the southeast slope of Galunggung Volcano on the densely populated island of Java, a hummocky deposit called the "Ten Thousand Hills of Tasik Malaja" drew the attention of European geologists in the early part of the 20th century. Dutch geologist B.G. Escher hypothesized that a breakout of a crater lake resulted in a watery landslide that formed the deposit. The hummocks were likely material left behind as the more watery parts of the slide flowed away. Austrian geologist F.X. Schaffer suggested that the hummocks might be manmade; as the local people cleared the land to make ricefields, they made dumps of the boulders and cobbles that they found. The dumps became hummocks, and were used as sites for homes and fruit trees, as they offered protections from hostile people as well as from the mosquitoes and rats of the rice fields. Schaffer noted that the volume of material might seem large for "occidentals but it is not beyond the powers of the numerous and industrious Malays."
The horseshoe shape of Galunggung's crater and the nature of the hummocks, however, suggest a different cause for the formation of the Ten Thousand Hills. Since 1980, geologists from the Volcanological Survey of Indonesia and the U.S. Geological Survey have reinterpreted the deposit as a debris-avalanche deposit. Quarry exposures show pieces of the old volcano -- the block facies -- shattered but intact, that are similar to the deposits at Mount St. Helens and Mount Shasta. Radiocarbon dates of a lava flow within the deposit show that the debris avalanche is less than 23,000 years old.From: Brantley and Glicken, 1986, Volcanic Debris Avalanches: Earthquakes & Volcanoes, v.18, n.6, p.195-206.
5. Mount Soputan (1825 m)
4. Mount Semeru (3676 m)
3. Mount Krakatau (813 m)
From: Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Website, 2000
2. Mount Tambora (2722 m)
The massive Tambora stratovolcano forms the entire 60-kilometer-wide Sanggar Peninsula on northern Sumbawa Island. Tambora grew to about 4000 meters elevation before forming a caldera more than 43,000 years ago. Late-Pleistocene lava flows largely filled the early caldera, after which activity changed to dominantly explosive eruptions during the early Holocene. Tambora was the source of history's largest explosive eruption, in April 1815. Pyroclastic flows reached the sea on all sides of the peninsula and heavy tephra fall devastated croplands, causing an estimated 60,000 fatalities. The eruption of more than 150 cubic kilometers of tephra formed a 6-kilometer-wide, 1250-meter-deep caldera and produced global climatic effects. Minor lava domes and flows have been extruded on the caldera floor during the 19th and 20th centuries.
From:
NASA's Earth Observing Project Science Webpage: Volcanoes and Global Climate Change, May 2000 Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Website, 2002
1. Mount Merapi (2968 m)
Yogyakarta's main public hospital reported 17 people admitted there had died and 32 were on the injured list.
Another seven people were confirmed dead and 12 injured at a Catholic-run hospital.
Officer in charge of the command post coordinating relief operations, Lieutenant Colonel Suyatno, said another seven people died in Turgo village on the slopes of the mountain.
A further seven people with severe burns had also been admitted to a private hospital.
Unconfirmed local media reports said the death toll was as high as 34, with authorities saying five people were still unaccounted for.
Suyatno said 5681 people had been evacuated from seven village on the slopes of Merapi.
The evacuees were sent to five temporary camps, the largest in the village of Pakembinangun, where 2705 people were being sheltered. The conical 2911-metre volcano spewed heat clouds more than 20 times, some spraying out as six kilometers down the slope, along the Krasak and Boyong Rivers.
An official from the vulcanological office in Jakarta said most of the people killed lived on Boyong River. Merapi's last major eruption was in November, 1976, killing 28 people and leaving 1176 people homeless.
from: Graeme Wheller (Dr) Consultant Geologist Volcanex International Pty Ltd (Hobart, Australia)
source:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://volcanoelive/
pictured by:
http://flickr.com/
http://fotodetik.com/
http://richard-seaman.com/
Label: mountaineering