List of volcanoes in Indonesia

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Image:Map indonesia volcanoes.gif This is a list of volcanoes in Indonesia. Most of these volcanoes are currently active. The geography of Indonesia mainly consists of volcanoes and they are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. These are formed due to the subduction zones between Eurasian plate and Indo-Australian plate. Some of the volcanoes are notable for their eruptions: Krakatoa in 1883,<ref>Winchester, Simon (2003). Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. HarperCollins. ISBN 0066212855.</ref> Lake Toba for its supervolcano eruption,<ref name="Oppenheimer2002">Oppenheimer, C. (2002). "Limited global change due to the largest known Quaternary eruption, Toba ≈74 kyr BP?". Quarternary Science Reviews 21 (14–15): 1593–1609.</ref> and Mount Tambora in 1815 for the most violent eruption in recorded history.<ref name="Stothers1984">Stothers, Richard B. (1984). "The Great Tambora Eruption in 1815 and Its Aftermath". Science 224 (4654): 1191-1198.</ref>

[edit] Geographically

[edit] Sumatra

The geography of Sumatra island is dominated by a mountain range called Bukit Barisan (lit: "a row of hills"). It spans nearly 1,700 km (1,050 mi) from the northern tip to the southern tip of the island. The mountain range is formed due to subduction zone of the Australian tectonic plate that pushes the Sunda Plate to the northeast.<ref name="Simoes2004">Simoes, M., Avouac, J.P., Cattin, R., Henry, P. (2004). "The Sumatra subduction zone: A case for a locked fault zone extending into the mantle". Journal of Geophysical Research 109. DOI:10.1029/2003JB002958.</ref> The tectonic movement has known for major earthquakes on the western side of the island, including the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake.<ref>Subarya, C., Chlieh, M., Prawirodirdjo, L., Avouac, J.P., Bock, Y., Sieh, K., Meltzner, A., Natawidjaja, D.H., McCaffrey, R. (2006). "Plate-boundary deformation associated with the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake". Nature 440: 46–51. DOI:10.1038/nature04522.</ref><ref>Lay, T., Kanamori, H., Ammon, C., Nettles, M., Ward, S., Aster, R., Beck, S., Bilek, S., Brudzinski, M., Butler, R., DeShon, H., Ekstrom, G. (2005). "The Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of 26 December 2004". Science 308 (5725): 1127–1133. DOI:10.1126/science.1112250.</ref> Besides earthquake, the tectonic movement system, known as Sunda Trench system, has created many magma chambers beneath the island.<ref name="Simoes2004"/> 35 mountains on the island are active volcanos. Only one of them is formed separately as a small island. The largest volcano is the supervolcano Toba, that has left a large caldera known as Lake Toba in North Sumatra after its supervolcanic eruption in 74 ka BP with estimated scale 8 (the highest on VEI scale).<ref name="Oppenheimer2002"/> The highest peak of the mountain range is Mount Kerinci with 3,800 m (12,467 ft).

[edit] Sunda Strait and Java

Sunda Strait separates Sumatra and Java island. Krakatau is located right in the middle of it. Krakatau erupted violently in 1883, which it has destroyed two-thirds of the island and left a large caldera under the sea. A new parasitic cone, called Anak Krakatau or the child of Krakatau, has arisen from the sea with growth rate of 13 cm (5 in) per week.

Java is a relatively small island, compared to Sumatra, but it has denser concentration of active volcanos. In total, there are 45 active volcanos, not including 20 small craters and cones in the Dieng volcanic complex and young cones in Tengger Caldera complex. Some volcanos are grouped together in the list below, because of their close location. Several volcanos are highly active. Mount Merapi, Semeru and Kelut are the most active volcanos. Mount Semeru has been continously erupting since 1967. Ijen has a unique colorful caldera, where tens of mining workers pick highly concentrated sulfur rocks by hand daily.

[edit] Lesser Sunda Islands

From west to east, Lesser Sunda Islands consists of Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor and other small islands. It is a chain of small archipelago. All of these islands are located at the edge of the Australian continental shelf and volcanoes are formed because of oceanic crusts and the movement of the shelf. Some islands are completely formed by a single volcano; for example: Sangeang Api island. Mount Tambora, which erupted in 1815 with VEI scale 7, is located on Sumbawa island.

Image:Tambora - the caldera.jpg Image:Flores Moni Kelimutu.jpg

[edit] Banda Sea

Banda Sea is located at the south of Molucca Islands and it consists of small islands, grouped as Banda Islands. Volcanoes in the area are mainly islands and some of them are of submarine volcano type. They are part of the volcanic arc chain that stretches from Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands and ends at Banda Sea.

[edit] Sulawesi and Sangihe Islands

The strangely shaped island, Sulawesi (or formerly known as Celebes), is dominated by four peninsulas. The central part is high mountaineous area, but mostly non-active. Active volcanoes are found in the northern peninsula and continuously stretches to the north to Sangihe Islands. The Sangihe Islands marks the border with Philipines.

[edit] Halmahera

Halmahera is a small island at the north of Molucca Islands. Small four peninsulas were formed due to tectonic plate movement with a similar shape of Sulawesi island. A string of small volcanoes are formed from north to south in the west of Halmahera.

[edit] See also

• List of volcanoes

[edit] References

[edit] Further readings

• Neumann van Padang M (1951). Indonesia. Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields, Rome: IAVCEI, 1: 1-271.

[edit] External links

• Volcanological Survey Indonesia
• Tectonics of Indonesia