Marapi (Indonesia)

Status Normal Eruption 2018 2885m
Complex (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Gunung Marapi, not to be confused with the better-known Merapi volcano on Java, is Sumatra's most active volcano. This massive complex stratovolcano rises 2000 m above the Bukittinggi plain in the Padang Highlands. A broad summit contains multiple partially overlapping summit craters constructed within the small 1.4-km-wide Bancah caldera. The summit craters are located along an ENE-WSW line, with volcanism migrating to the west. More than 50 eruptions, typically consisting of small-to-moderate explosive activity, have been recorded since the end of the 18th century; no lava flows outside the summit craters have been reported in historical time.

Forested Marapi, rising above ricefields, is Sumatra's most active volcano. More than 50 small-to-moderate explosive eruptions have occurred since the end of the 18th century. Marapi, not to be confused with the more well-known Merapi volcano on Java, is a complex elongated stratovolcano with multiple summit craters that rises 2000 m above the Padang Highlands in central Sumatra.

Photo by Amin, 2003 (Centre of Volcanology & Geological Hazard Mitigation, Volcanological Survey of Indonesia).

Last updated 2024-04-19 00:10:09