MOUNT MERAPI
Mount Merapi, Gunung Merapi (literally Fire
Mountain in Indonesian and Javanese),
is an active stratovolcano located
on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces, Indonesia.
It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since
1548. It is located approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Yogyakarta city
which has a population of 2.4 million, and thousands of people live on the
flanks of the volcano, with villages as high as 1,700 metres (5,600 ft)
above sea level.
Smoke can often be seen emerging from the mountaintop, and
several eruptions have caused fatalities. Pyroclastic flow from a large
explosion killed 27 people on 22 November 1994, mostly in the town of Muntilan,
west of the volcano. Another large eruption occurred in 2006, shortly
before the Yogyakarta earthquake. In light of the
hazards that Merapi poses to populated areas, it has been designated as one of
the Decade Volcanoes.
On 20 October 2010, the Indonesian government raised the
alert for Mount Merapi to its highest level and warned villagers in threatened
areas to move to safer ground. People living within the range of a 20 km
(12 mi) zone were told to evacuate. Officials said[about 500
volcanic earthquakes had been recorded on the mountain over the weekend of
23–24 October, and that the magma had risen to about 1 kilometre
(3,300 ft) below the surface due to the seismic activity. On the afternoon of 25 October 2010,
Mount Merapi erupted lava from its southern and southeastern
slopes.
The mountain was still erupting on 30 November 2010, but due to lowered
eruptive activity on 3 December 2010, the official alert status was reduced to
level 3. The volcano is now 2930 metres high, 38 metres lower than before
the 2010 eruptions.
After a large eruption in
2010, the characteristic shape of Mount Merapi was changed. On 18 November
2013, Mount Merapi erupted smoke up to 2,000 meters high, one of its first
major phreatic eruptions after the 2010
eruption. Researchers said that this eruption occurred due to the combined
effect of hot volcanic gases and abundant rainfall. The most recent eruption so
far was on 3 March 2020.
