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explained
Islands are ringed by a chain of fire-breathing volcanoes
By Brett Israel
Butting heads
Monday's 7.7-magnitudeearthquake that triggered a 10-foot tsunami, killing at least 113 people,
occurred when the Australia and Sunda plates butted heads. Called thrust faulting, one rocky plate
subducted or took a dive below the other, resulting in an earthquake.
Other large ruptures along the Sunda megathrust include the 9.1-magnitude 2004 quake and Indian
Ocean tsunami that killed approximately 230,000 people in a dozen countries. A look beneath
Indonesia would reveal lots of shifting and colliding plates. Below the country, the Eurasian Plate,
Australian Plate, Indian Plate, Sunda Plate and Pacific Plate mash together.
In fact, the plate movements are also responsible for some of the most active volcanoes. For
instance, the Indian Plate is subducting beneath the Eurasian continental plate, which has formed
the volcanic arc in western Indonesia, home to 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia that are a part of
the Ring of Fire.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is home to 452 volcanoes in total — that's 75 percent of the world's active
and dormant volcanoes.
Mountain of fire
Both of Indonesia's most active volcanoes — Kelut and Mount Merapi (meaning "mountain of fire")
— sit on Java Island.
And both have a history of explosive eruptions. Mount Merapi erupted Oct. 26, with preliminary
reports of 100 people killed, according to the USGS. Merapi is located in central Java, roughly 310
miles southeast of the capital Jakarta.
Mount Merapi last erupted in 2006, killing two, but its violent history includes more than 1,300
killed in a 1930 eruption and possibly 70 killed in a 1994 eruption.
Other colossal volcanic eruptions that have occurred in Indonesia include the eruption of Krakatau,
which reportedly generated the loudest sound ever heard in modern history when it exploded in
1883, killing 40,000 people. Krakatau is a volcanic island located between the islands of Java and
Sumatra.
The Toba supervolcano located on the island of Sumatra, which erupted 70,000 years ago, was a
global catastrophe, creating six years of volcanic winter.