MT Merapi

MOUNT MERAPI
November 1994

Mt, Merapi is located between Yogyakarta (central Java) and Indonesia. The crater of the volcano stands at 2,914 meters. It is a stratovolcano with rock as old as 400,000 years. Merapi has been fully active since 1548 with 68 major eruptions so strong they killed thousands of people in the near by villages. Indonesia contains the most active volcanoes in the world. Even though Merapi is on of the smallest volcano out of the 129 volcanoes in the Java region, it is by far the most active one. It is the youngest volcano amongst the java volcanoes and lies above the Indo-Australian plate which slides under the Eurasian plate. The name Merapi means “Mountain of Fire”. Eruptions started again in 2006 and a major eruption is expected in the near future.

http://www.pdc.org/PDCNewsWebArticles/2006hazardbriefs/Merapi_May06_AP.jpg

From 1992 to 2002 Mt. Merapi experienced a decade of constant. Since 1992 a lava dome formed growing up to ½ a meter or sometimes more per day. Towards the end of 1994 during November, the dome reached the top of the volcano which caused frequent pyroclastic flows . The big eruption of that year happened on the 22nd of November at about 10:15 am. For the first 25 minutes there was a steam eruption with rock ejection and gravel then the eruption happened. That day, 34 people were killed. During that month, 50 people died, due to the difficult breathing caused by the pyroclastic flows. After the eruption and the collapse of the dome, a new dome started to form that sometimes grew up to several meters a day, the new dome then collapsed in 2002.

http://earth.esa.int/ew/volcanoes/Merapi_indonesia-june06/_images/Merapi_encmap.gif

No evacuations were made until the following day, as there weren’t many deaths through out most of the year. On the 23rd of November, 6,026 people were evacuated. People that stayed behind were warned to be on alert for the next seven days incase of any aftershocks. Most of the damage occurred along the Boyong rivers. Several days later, lava was still flowing along 1.5 kilometers from the volcano along the Boyong rovers. Over 15’000 people live a long the volcano, most of them being farmers. The soil along the volcano is filled with nutrients due to the weathering process of the volcanic rocks, which attracts a lot of farmers. Chemicals released by the eruption also help make the soil fertile. After eruptions, the soil becomes a lot richer which speeds up the growing of crops for farmers. Merapi is also a big tourist attraction having bin active since the 16th century.

http://www.vsi.esdm.go.id/mvo/fig31.jpg

Mt. Merapi is under watch by a volcano monitoring program. Some of the volcanoes seismic monitoring programs today are still from 1924 when monitoring first started. There are currently 8 seismographs located around the volcano, through this scientist can accurately predict were small earthquakes under the volcano originate that may trigger an eruption. Not knowing when an eruption may occur, evacuations have been made when ever movement was collected be the seismographs.

Bibliography
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Vdap/Responses/Merapi94/merapi1.html
http://www.startsurfing.com/encyclopedia/m/o/u/Mount_Merapi_b6fc.html
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/merapi/
http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Mount_Merapi
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Vdap/Responses/Merapi94/merapi4.html