Living in the shadows of active volcanoes is like sitting on a time bomb, especially when one of them is called Fire Mountain or Gunung Merapi in Indonesian language. Merapi is one of some 500 volcanoes in Indonesia, of which at least 129 are considered active. It lies in one of Indonesia’s most densely populated regions, and is only a few kilometres from the sultanate of Yogyakarta. Despite frequently giving out smoke, the mountain still attracts hikers and climbers. It takes 5 hours to climb up and 3 hours to return
Merapi is the youngest in a group of volcanoes in southern Java. It is situated at a subduction zone, where the Indo-Australian Plate is sliding beneath the Eurasian Plate.
Typically, small eruptions occur every two to three years, and larger ones every 10-15 years or so. Notable eruptions, often causing many deaths, have occurred in 1006, 1786, 1822, 1872 (the most violent eruption in recent history), and 1930—when thirteen villages were destroyed and 1400 people killed by pyroclastic flows.
Mount Merapi is the site of a very active volcano monitoring program. Seismic monitoring began in 1924, with some of the volcano monitoring stations lasting until the present. The Babadan (north west location), Selo (in the saddle between Merbabu and Merapi), and Plawangan monitoring stations have been updated with equipment over the decades since establishment. During the 1950s and early 1960s some of the stations were starved of equipment and funds, but after the 1970s considerable improvement occurred with the supply of new equipment. Some of the pre-1930 observation posts were destroyed by the 1930 eruption, and newer posts were re-located. Similarly after the 1994 eruption, the Plawangan post and equipment were moved into Kaliurang as a response to the threat of danger to the Volcanological personnel at the higher point.
Posted under Yogyakarta
This post was written by admin on July 12, 2009
