Merapi volcano eruptions
Stratovolcano 2968 m / 9,737 ft
Central Java, Indonesia, -7.54°S / 110.44°E
Eruption list: 1548, 1554, 1560, 1584, 1586(?), 1587, 1658, 1663, 1672, 1678, 1745, 1752, 1755, 1768, 1791, 1797, 1807, 1810, 1812-22, 1822-23, 1828, 1832-36, 1837-38, 1840, 1846, 1848(?), 1849, 1854(?), 1861, 1862-64, 1865-71, 1872 (large vulcanian-subplinian eruption VEI:4) , 1872-73, 1878-79, 1883-84, 1885-87, 1888, 1889, 1891-92, 1893, 1894, 1897, 1902, 1902-04, 1905, 1906-07, 1908, 1909-13, 1915, 1918, 1920-21, 1922, 1923(?), 1924, 1930-31, 1932, 1933-35, 1939-40, 1942-45, 1948, 1953-58, 1961, 1967-1970, 1971(?), 1972-85, 1986-90, 1992-2002, April-July 2006, Oct 2010-2011 Feb, 2018 (May), late 2018 - ongoing
April-June 2006 eruption: new lava dome & pyroclastic flows, 2 fatalities

Pyroclastic flow on 27 May 2006, immediately after the earthquake.
After a period of 5 years of relative calm, a new eruption started in April 2006. A new lava dome was built on top of the lava dome of 1998-2001, powerful pyroclastic flows descended the SW, S and SE flanks in late May and June. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated during the peak of the eruption in late May-mid June. A particularly powerful pyroclastic flow killed two workers trapped inside a shelter that was overrun by a flow on 14 June.
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After a period of 5 years of relative calm, seismic activity started to increase again in March and April 2006. With the still fresh memory of the deadly 1994 eruption in mind, authorities started to prepare to evacuate 10,000 people living in the immediate surroundings of the volcano and closed the mountain - a popular destination for excursion for students and tourists - on 10 April. An 8 km exclusion zone was placed around the volcano.
On 25 April, large rockfalls could be heard from several kilometer distance and it became apparent that a new lava dome had started to grow. Evacuation efforts were accelerated and on 27 April, about 2000 people were evacuated from villages on the SW flank.
The new lava dome and incandescent rockfalls increased through the end of April and early May, when the lava dome started to shed small rockfalls also onto the SE flank. Avalanches of incandescent material and small pyroclastic flows reached 1-2 km towards the Krakask valley on the SW and minor rockfalls into the Gendol River to the SE.
4,500 people were evacuated from the S and SE flanks on 13 May. Pyroclastic flows became more and more frequent and reached up 4 km to the SW. By 16 May, over 22,000 people had been evacuated.
After the 27 May earthquake, activity seemed to increased by a factor of 3. On 8 June, scientists estimated the effusion rate of the growing lava dome 100,000 cubic meters per day and the volume of the new dome as 4 million cubic meters. The same day, one of the largest pyroclastic flows from the eruption reached 5 km distance to the SE into the Gendol river. In early June, the SE side had become the predominant direction of pyroclastic flows, after the growing dome had breached and destroyed a section of an older lava dome initially shielding the S and SE upper flanks.
On 14 June a large dome collapse event lasting 3.5 hours started, shedding pyroclastic flows reaching 7 km SE. Two volunteers of a search-and-rescue team assisting the evacuation efforts could were trapped in an underground concrete shelter in Kaliadem village, where they died burned to death by the hot gasses of the pyroclastic flow that covered it with a 1 meter deposit.
After mid June, pyroclastic flows and rockfalls decreased in frequency and intensity and the eruption died out in Aug-Sep 2006.
27 May 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake

Destroyed buildings in Yogyakarta's centre after the 27 May earthquake (Photo: T Pfeiffer)
On 27 May 2006 a magnitude 6.3 tectonic earthquake near Yogyakarta caused 5750 fatalities, around 40,000 injuries and destroyed large sections of Yogyakarta and sourrounding towns, leaving more than 600,000 people homeless.
The earthquake was caused by the collission of the Australian and Sunda tectonic plates, forming a subduction zone west of the coast of Java.
Jan-Feb 2001 activity: major dome collapse on 10 February
Activity increased in January 2001, lava effusion rates were at high levels and feeding frequent pyroclastic flows. On 31 January pyroclastic flows occurred continuously, reaching up to 3.5 km from the summit, flowing mainly to the SSW, but started also to descend on the SW and W flanks of the mountain into the Senowo and Bebeng Rivers.
On 10 February 2001, a large section of the 1998 lava dome collapsed and triggered a serious of pyroclastic flows that reached 7 km distance from the crater, travelling SSW into the Sat River. Significant ash fall from the eruption occured up to 60 km E of the volcano.
After this event, activity decreased sharply, but continued at lower levels through much of 2001.
Dec 2000- Jan 2001 eruption: pyroclastic flows
Eruptive activity increased steeply during the period of 26 December 2000-22 January 2001. On 14 January, 29 pyroclastic flows traveled down the volcano's SSW and SW flanks and reached up to 4 km from their source. During the week, lava avalanches and pyroclastic flows occurred with an average interval of 0.5-1 hours.
1998-2000 activity: glowing rockfalls
Seismic activity and rockfalls from the lava dome at the summit increased again in June 1998 and peaked between 11-19 July when 128 rock avalanches and pyroclastic flows were recorded descending the Lamat, Krasak/Bebeng and Boyong rivers on the SW and SSW flanks of the volcano.
Activity decreased, but the volcano remained active through 1999 and 2000, when intense degassing, minor explosions, intermittend glow at the summit and occasional rockfalls were recorded.
1996 eruptions - contining lava dome growth and pyroclastic flows
The activity that had started in 1994 continued through 1995 and increased again starting from August 1996, when explosions and pyroclastic flows became more frequent and large. On 9 August, a pyroclastic flow traveled 3.5 km from the summit down the SSW flank and reached the upper parts of the Krasak and Boyong rivers. No casualties were reported. An explosion on 13 September created an ash cloud of ca. 4 km height above the summit.
Activity peaked on 31 October when 17 pyroclastic flows were recorded. They reached a maximum of 3 km distance and touched the upper valleys of Bebeng, Krasak, Boyong, and Kuning rivers on the SSW and SW flanks.
Pyroclastic flows decreased on 1st November and the eruption ended on 2nd November.
1994 eruption - 41 fatalities
A major collapse of the growing lava dome on November 22 1994 produced a large pyroclastic flow that ran 7.5 km on the S flank, overrunning Kaliurang village and killed at least 41 people. 6000 people were evacuated.
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A new eruption started around 14h00 on 16 July 1994, when an explosion and pyroclastic flow was triggered following a period of strong inflation. The eruption started to built a lava dome and peaked in November.
Particularly powerful pyroclastic flows on 22 November killed at least 41 people on the SSW flank, despite the fact that the population living in the affected areas had been warned constantly about the risk during the preceding months.
The glowing avalanche on 22 November was triggered by collapse of the active summit dome producing pyroclastic block-and-ash flows and glowing surges that traveled SSW up to 7.5 km from the summit. By 28 November, 41 people had died and another 43 were at hospitals in serious condition. All of the victims lived near the banks of the Boyong River on Marapi's S flank. (Source:
GVP)
1992-1993 eruption: new lava dome growth
A new lava dome grew in late January and early February 1992 and generated pyroclastic flows travelling up to 4 km to the SW flank.
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A new eruption began on 20 January 1992 when glowing rockfalls were first seen and a new lava dome started to grow in the SW section of the summit crater. Around midnight of 21 January 1992 an ash explosion occured. Pyroclastic flows increased through the end of January and peaked on 2 February, when 33 flows extending up to 4 km to the SW occured. Activity declined in mid February.
During the rest of 1992, the lava dome continued to grow at lower rates and produced intermittend glowing rockfalls and smaller pyroclastic flows. Activity resumed again a higher intensity Dec 1992-Feb 1993. Some rockfall avalanches flowed into the Bedog and Boyong rivers on the S flank. On 3 February, the longest pyroclastic flow of this period travelled 4 km WNW down the Senowo and Sat rivers on the SSW flank. After March 1993, activity decreased to low levels.
1968 eruptions
By the end of May 1968 a viscous lava flow had been extruded from the collapse scar of the Oct 1967 dome collapse and reached 875 m SW on the upper slope. Rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows from the lava flow were frequent in June through August (up to ca. 1500 per month) and died out in September. New activity began in October.
April-October 1967 eruption
A new lava dome was built in April 1967. Dome collapses in October 1967 generated pyroclastic flows into the Batang river valley on the SW side of the cone.
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