Merapi Volcano - Yogyakarta - Visit Indonesia

Merapi Volcano is the youngest in a group of volcanoes in the southern region of Java. It is situated at a subduction zone, where the Indo-Australian Plate is sliding beneath the Eurasian Plate. It is one of at least 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire – a section of the fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and South East Asia. Stratigraphic analysis reveals that eruptions in the Merapi area began about 395,000 years ago, and from then until about 10,000 years ago, eruptions were typically effusive, and the outflowing lava emitted was basaltic. Merapi Volcano can be very destructive in nature.Since then, eruptions have become much more explosive, with viscous andesitic lavas often generating lava domes. Dome collapse's have often generated pyroclastic flows, and larger explosions, which have resulted in eruption columns, have also generated pyroclastic flows through column collapse.