The Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi (which monitors volcanoes and other geohazards in Indonesia) has set up a three kilometer exclusion zone around Mount Rinjani, an active volcano on northern Lombok island, on Tuesday 27 September 2016. The eruption came without warning, and produced an ash column two kilometers in height from the Gunung Barujari crater, which first erupted in 1994. At the time of the eruption over a thousand tourists were in the Mount Rinjani National Park, which surrounds the volcano, including 639 foreign nationals. Initial reports suggested that some of these were missing and may have been trapped by the eruption, but all have now been found and evacuated, including some who reportedly initially sought to avoid local authorities in order to observe and document the eruption.
The 27 September 2016 eruption on Mount Rinjani. Antara Foto/Reuters.
The
Indo-Australian Plate, which underlies the Indian Ocean to the south of
Java, Bali and Lombok, is being subducted beneath the Sunda Plate, a
breakaway part of the Eurasian Plate which underlies the islands and
neighbouring Sumatra, along the Sunda Trench, passing under the islands,
where friction between the two plates can cause Earthquakes. As the
Indo-Australian Plate sinks further into the Earth it is partially
melted and some of the melted material rises through the overlying Sunda
Plate as magma, fuelling the volcanoes of Java and neighbouring
islands.
The approximate location of Mount Rinjani. Google Maps.
Subduction along the Sunda Trench beneath Java, Bali and Lombok. Earth Observatory of Singapore.
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hit the Karangmukti...
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