Slamet volcano alert level raised, Central Java, Indonesia
Image credit: Mount Slamet, Central Java, Indonesia - 2011 (public domain)
Indonesian authorities have raised the alert level for Slamet volcano in Central Java from 1 to 2 on August 9, 2019. The last eruption of this volcano took place in 2014.
The Center for Volcanology and Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) raised the status of the volcano due to a significant increase in seismic activity and deformation. There are still no visually signs of eruption, the center said.
The current potential threat is a magmatic eruption with incandescent material possible within a 2 km (1.2 miles) radius, or phreatic eruption and ash around a potential crater. Both can happen without further precursors.
The volcano had numerous VEI 1 and 2 eruptions since 1772.
Geological summary
Slamet, Java's second-highest volcano at 3 428 m (11 246 feet) and one of its most active, has a cluster of about three dozen cinder cones on its lower SE-NE flanks and a single cinder cone on the western flank.
It is composed of two overlapping edifices, an older basaltic-andesite to andesitic volcano on the west and a younger basaltic to basaltic-andesite one on the east. Gunung Malang II cinder cone on the upper E flank on the younger edifice fed a lava flow that extends 6 km (3.7 miles) E.
Four craters occur at the summit of Gunung Slamet, with activity migrating to the SW over time.
Historical eruptions, recorded since the 18th century, have originated from a 150-m-deep (492 feet), 450-m-wide (1 476 feet), steep-walled crater at the western part of the summit and have consisted of explosive eruptions generally lasting a few days to a few weeks.
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Published in the last 24 hours
- In 1954, a grapefruit-sized meteorite crashed through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and struck Ann Hodges as she napped on her couch Epicenter
- A meteorite blew a crater beside a village near Lake Titicaca in 2007, and dozens of villagers who went to see it got headaches and nausea, though tests found nothing the rock had added to the water Epicenter
- The people who pay closest attention to the weather are the ones storms have already cost the most, a study of 946 students found, with one damaging storm making little difference to how much attention a student paid, but two or more making a clear one Epicenter
- The sea is falling in Juneau, Alaska, because land freed from melted glaciers is rising about 0.6 inches a year Epicenter
