Volcanology of Indonesia

Map of volcanoes in Indonesia

Indonesia is a volcanically active country, containing numerous major volcanoes. The country contains the most volcanoes in the world, with 76 volcanoes that have erupted within historical times. The Smithsonian Institution has 141 Indonesian entries in its volcano database.[1] It has around 130 active volcanoes that are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and has suffered the highest numbers of eruptions producing fatalities, damage to arable land, debris flows, tsunamis, domes, and pyroclastic flows. Indonesia's most active volcanoes are Kelut and Mount Merapi on the island of Java. The country's volcanism is due to the subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate.

The most severe eruptions on earth in historical time took place in Indonesia. The giant eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, the largest known eruption of the world during historical times and had such a large effect on the climate that for example Europe was to experience 1816 as the year without summer. In 1883, the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa engraved itself deeply into the group memory of mankind . The eruption of Krakatoa was followed by serious tsunamis that killed about 30–40,000 people .

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.