Ranakah Volcano
Updated: Apr 18, 2024 09:58 GMT -
lava domes 2350 m / 7,710 ft
Flores (Indonesia), -8.62°S / 120.52°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Flores (Indonesia), -8.62°S / 120.52°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Last update: 14 Dec 2021 (decreasing activity, Alert Level lowered to 1)
A new lava dome formed at the base of the large older lava dome of Gunung Ranakahin in 1987 and was named Anak Ranakah (Child of Ranakah). No previous historical eruptions were known from Ranakahin.
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Ranakah volcano eruptions: 1991, 1987-89
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Background
An arcuate group of older lava domes extending westward from Gunung Ranakah occurs on the outer flanks of the poorly known Poco Leok caldera on western Flores Island. Pocok Mandosawa lava dome, at 2350 m the highest point on the island of Flores, lies west of Anak Ranakah.Source: GVP
Eruptions of Ranakah volcano
1987-89: a new lava dome is born
Explosions began at 22h00 on 28 December 1987 from a pre-existing crater (Anak Ranakah) in an area without known historical eruptive activity. Ash reached 2000 m above the crater. By 6 January, 20,000 people had been evacuated from an area within a 5 km radius of the vent. Until 9 January 1988, numerous (probably phreatic) explosions continued to produce ash columns between 500 and 6,000 m height.
Incandescent lava appeared on 9 January 1988, and a new lava dome started to grow rapidly, filling the crater during the first two days. Numerous large explosions, originally from rockfall avalanches off the new dome N into the steep-walled Wai Reno drainage, were reported on 12 and 13 January. The largest produced a pyroclastic flow that traveled ~ 5 km N down the Wai Reno drainage. It knocked over and singed trees in an area of dense jungle as much as 1 km wide before stopping 700 m from the highway.
Rates of lava extrusion in January averaged roughly 500,000 m3/day. As of 26 January, 4,200 inhabitants of the sparsely populated area N of Anak Ranakah had been evacuated to the city of Ruteng.
Lava emission decreased significantly from February on. By the end of February, the volume of the lava dome was ~ 11.5 million m3 and the large lava tongue that had descended the N side of the lava dome had a volume of ~ 4.8 x million m3.
In the following months, lava emission rate and the intensity of the eruptions decreased steadily, until it stopped during the summer months. Since the eruption had began in December, the new lava dome reached a height of 150 m.
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Source: GVP monthly reports
Explosions began at 22h00 on 28 December 1987 from a pre-existing crater (Anak Ranakah) in an area without known historical eruptive activity. Ash reached 2000 m above the crater. By 6 January, 20,000 people had been evacuated from an area within a 5 km radius of the vent. Until 9 January 1988, numerous (probably phreatic) explosions continued to produce ash columns between 500 and 6,000 m height.
Incandescent lava appeared on 9 January 1988, and a new lava dome started to grow rapidly, filling the crater during the first two days. Numerous large explosions, originally from rockfall avalanches off the new dome N into the steep-walled Wai Reno drainage, were reported on 12 and 13 January. The largest produced a pyroclastic flow that traveled ~ 5 km N down the Wai Reno drainage. It knocked over and singed trees in an area of dense jungle as much as 1 km wide before stopping 700 m from the highway.
Rates of lava extrusion in January averaged roughly 500,000 m3/day. As of 26 January, 4,200 inhabitants of the sparsely populated area N of Anak Ranakah had been evacuated to the city of Ruteng.
Lava emission decreased significantly from February on. By the end of February, the volume of the lava dome was ~ 11.5 million m3 and the large lava tongue that had descended the N side of the lava dome had a volume of ~ 4.8 x million m3.
In the following months, lava emission rate and the intensity of the eruptions decreased steadily, until it stopped during the summer months. Since the eruption had began in December, the new lava dome reached a height of 150 m.
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Source: GVP monthly reports
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