Indonesia: Mount Merapi spews smoke into sky as it erupts
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Mount Merapi is Indonesia’s most active volcano, having erupted regularly since 1854. Thousands of people live on its flanks, with the city of Yogyakarta (population 2.4 million) just 17 miles north of its dome. Smoke is often seen billowing from the mountaintop, and several eruptions have caused fatalities.
In 1994, a pyroclastic flow from a large explosion killed 27 people.
Another large event occurred in 2006, which led to its designation as one of the Decade Volcanoes — a group of 16 volcanoes identified as being worthy of particular study because of their history.
Merapi and its potential eruption this year was explored by the film channel Underworld in its video ‘5 Volcanoes That Could Erupt in 2022’.
The video’s narrator noted: “It’s not exactly difficult to imagine Mount Merapi erupting in 2022, since it erupted in 2021.”
On January 4 last year, eruptions began which were serious enough to evacuate parts of Yogyakarta.
On March 27, another eruption occurred after Merapi oozed lava and created pyroclastic flows.
Later, in August, there were even more new lava flows and a cloud of ash that shot miles into the air.
The geological authorities invoked the second highest alert level that November after sensors picked up an increase in activity that warned them the situation could become even more unstable than usual.
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The narrator said: “With such recent activity, it is possible we will see more eruptions from this volcano in 2022.”
The volcano and its eruptions are caused by the Indo-Australian plate being subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate, and is located on a destructive plate margin, at a subduction zone, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Thankfully, last year’s eruption was not as intense and serious as those witnessed in recent decades.
It was nothing like that seen in 2010 when Merapi erupted on its southern and southeastern slopes.
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Here, a total of 353 people were killed, while 350,000 were forced to flee their homes.
Most of the damage was done by pyroclastic flows, while heavy rain on November 4 created lahars — a type of mudflow — which caused further damage.
The blast was so powerful that Merapi’s shape was changed, with its height lowered by 38 metres to 2,930 metres.
There were a further two noticeable eruptions in the following years, not including that in 2021.
Two phreatic eruptions occurred in 2013 and 2018.
The first and larger of these, caused by a combination of rainfall and internal activity, saw smoke issued up to a height of 2,000 metres.
People local to the area and their families will be used to the eruptions given their consistency.
Today, small eruptions occur every two to three years, and larger one every ten to 15 years.
Notable eruptions that have caused multiple deaths occurred in 1006, 1786, 1822, 1872, and 1930.
In the 1930 one, 1,400 people were killed by pyroclastic flows.
The very large eruption in 1006 is claimed to have covered all of Central Java with ash, with the devastation even claimed to have led to the collapse of the Hindu Kingdom of Mataram.
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