Saturday 11 April 2015

Eruptions on Batu Tara.

On 7 April 2015 the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre reported an ash cloud rising 7 km above the island, which then drifted to the northwest. This is the first eruptive activity on the volcano reported since the end of November 2013. Batu Tara is a small island volcano rising 748 m above the Flores Sea in Indonesia, about 50 km north of Lembata. It is the tip of a stratovolcano (cone-shaped volcano made up of layers of ash and lava) which rises from the seafloor 3000 m below.

 The approximate location of Batu Tara. Google Maps.

Batu Tara is located to the north of the Flores Thrust, where the Timor Microplate is being subducted beneath the Banda Sea Plate (part of the collisional area between the Australian and Eurasian Plates). As this happens the Timor Plate is forced down into the Earth's interior, where it is partially melted by the heat. Melted material then rises through the overlying Banda Sea Plate, fueling the volcanoes located upon it.

The nature and frequency of eruptions on Batu Tare, combined with its position directly between Jakarta and Sidney, means that it frequently causes problems for aircraft, which need to be diverted around any ash clouds. This can add significantly to flight times, and therefore costs.

See also...

Flights from Australia to Indonesia and Southeast Asia have been severely disrupted and several...
 
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/magnitude-52-earthquake-on-west-timor.htmlMagnitude 5.2 Earthquake on west Timor.  The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 27.2 km, 9 km to the northeast of the city of Kupang on the western (Indonesian) half of the Island of Timor, at the...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/eruption-on-batu-tara.htmlEruption on Batu Tara.                            The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre reports an eruption on the island volcano Batu Tara, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands in the Flores Sea, producing a 2.1 km ash column on the morning of Friday 13 September 2013. This follows a series of eruptions over the previous two days, which...
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