The

geography of Indonesia Indonesia is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia, lying between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is located in a strategic location astride or along major sea lanes connecting East Asia, South Asia and Oceania. Indonesia ...

is dominated by

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es that are formed due to

subduction zone Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

s between the

Eurasian plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

and the

Indo-Australian plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

. Some of the volcanoes are notable for their eruptions, for instance,

Krakatoa Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. Tw ...

for its global effects in 1883, the

Lake Toba Caldera Lake Toba ( id, Danau Toba) ( Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of a supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of th ...

for its supervolcanic eruption estimated to have occurred 74,000 years before present which was responsible for six years of

volcanic winter A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosiv ...

, and

Mount Tambora Mount Tambora, or Tomboro, is an active stratovolcano in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Located on Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands, it was formed by the active subduction zones beneath it. Before 1815, its elevation reached more than ...

for the most violent eruption in

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world hist ...

in 1815. Volcanoes in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

are part of the

Pacific Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions and ...

. The 150 entries in the list below are grouped into six geographical regions, four of which belong to the volcanoes of the

Sunda Arc The Sunda Arc is a volcanic arc that produced the volcanoes that form the topographic spine of the islands of Sumatra, Nusa Tenggara, and Java, the Sunda Strait and the Lesser Sunda Islands. The Sunda Arc begins at Sumatra and ends at Flores, ...

trench system. The remaining two groups are volcanoes of

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. Hal ...

, including its surrounding

volcanic island Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

s, and volcanoes of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

and the

Sangihe Islands The Sangihe Islands (also spelled "Sangir", "Sanghir" or "Sangi") – id, Kepulauan Sangihe – are a group of islands which constitute two regencies within the province of North Sulawesi, in northern Indonesia, the Sangihe Islands Regen ...

. The latter group is in one

volcanic arc A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc lo ...

together with the

Philippine The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

volcanoes. The most active volcano is

Mount Merapi Mount Merapi, ''Gunung Merapi'' (literally Fire Mountain in Indonesian and Javanese), is an active stratovolcano located on the border between the province of Central Java and the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is the most active ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. Since AD 1000,

Kelut The Kelud ( jv, ꦏꦼꦭꦸꦢ꧀, Kelud, sometimes spelled as ''Klut'', ''Cloot'', ''Kloet'', ''Kloete'', ''Keloed'' or ''Kelut'') is an active stratovolcano located in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. Like many Indonesian volcanoes and others on ...

has erupted more than 30 times, of which the largest eruption was at scale 5 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), while

has erupted more than 80 times. The

International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) is a learned society that focuses on research in volcanology, efforts to mitigate volcanic disasters, and research into closely related disciplines, such ...

has named Mount Merapi as a

Decade Volcano The Decade Volcanoes are 16 volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive eruptions and prox ...

since 1995 because of its high volcanic activity. As of 2012, Indonesia has 127 active volcanoes and about 5 million people active within the danger zones. It has been conjectured that the earthquake and tsunami event of 26 December 2004 could trigger eruptions, with

Mount Sinabung Mount Sinabung ( Indonesian: ''Gunung Sinabung'', Karo: ''Deleng Sinabung'') is a Pleistocene-to-Holocene stratovolcano of andesite and dacite in the Karo plateau of Karo Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia, from the Lake Toba supervolcano. M ...

( dormant since the 1600s) erupting in 2010 as a possible example. The word for ''Mount'' in

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

and many regional languages of the country is ''Gunung''. Thus, Mount Merapi may be referred to as ''Gunung Merapi''.

Scope

There is no single standard definition for a volcano. It can be defined from individual vents, volcanic edifices or volcanic fields. Interior of ancient volcanoes may have been eroded, creating a new subsurface

magma chamber A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it upw ...

as a separate volcano. Many contemporary active volcanoes rise as young

parasitic cone A parasitic cone (also adventive cone or satellite cone) is the cone-shaped accumulation of volcanic material not part of the central vent of a volcano. It forms from eruptions from fractures on the flank of the volcano. These fractures occur ...

s from flank vents or at a central

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

. Some volcanic cones are grouped into one volcano name, for instance, the Tengger caldera complex, although individual vents are named by local people. The status of a volcano, either

active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...

or dormant, cannot be defined precisely. An indication of a volcano is determined by either its historical records,

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

, or geothermal activities. The primary source of the list below is taken from the

Volcanoes of the World ''Volcanoes of the World'' is a book that was published in three editions in 1981, 1994, and 2010 as a collaboration between volcanologists around the world, and the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP). Editions The three edi ...

book, compiled by two

volcanologists Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term ''volcanology'' is derived from the Latin word ''vulcan''. Vulcan was the anci ...

Tom Simkin and Lee Siebert, in which active volcanoes in the past 10,000 years (

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

) are listed. Particularly for Indonesia, Simkin and Siebert used a catalogue of active volcanoes from the

publication series. The Simkin and Siebert list is the most complete list of volcanoes in Indonesia, but the accuracy of the record varies from one region to another in terms of contemporary activities and fatalities in recent eruptions. Complementary sources for the latest volcanic data are taken from the Volcanological Survey of Indonesia, a governmental institution which is responsible for volcanic activities and geological hazard mitigation in Indonesia, and some academic resources.

Geographical groups

Sumatra

The geography of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

is dominated by a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

called

Bukit Barisan The Bukit Barisan or the Barisan Mountains are a mountain range on the western side of Sumatra, Indonesia, covering nearly 1,700 km (1,050 mi) from the north to the south of the island. The Bukit Barisan range consists primarily of volc ...

(lit: "a row of hills"). The mountain range spans nearly from the north to the south of the island, and it was formed by movement of the Australian tectonic plate. The

plate Plate may refer to: Cooking * Plate (dishware), a broad, mainly flat vessel commonly used to serve food * Plates, tableware, dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining * Plate, the content of such a plate (for example: ...

moves with a convergence rate of 5.5 cm/year which has created major

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s on the western side of Sumatra including the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake. The tectonic movement has been responsible not only for earthquakes, but also for the formation of

s beneath the island. Only one of the 35 active volcanoes, Weh, is separated from the Sumatran mainland. The separation was caused by a large eruption that filled the lowland between Weh and the rest of the mainland with sea water in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

epoch. The largest volcano of Sumatra is the

supervolcano A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 8, the largest recorded value on the index. This means the volume of deposits for such an eruption is greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic ...

Toba Toba may refer to: Languages * Toba Sur language, spoken in South America * Batak Toba, spoken in Indonesia People * Toba people, indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco in South America * Toba Batak people, a sub-ethnic group of Batak people from ...

within the × Lake Toba, which was created after a caldera collapse (est. in 74,000

Before Present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...

). The eruption is estimated to have been at level eight on the VEI scale, the highest level for a volcanic eruption. The highest peak of the mountain range is

Mount Kerinci Mount Kerinci (also spelled Kerintji, among several other ways, and referred to as Gunung Kerinci, Gadang, Berapi Kurinci, Kerinchi, Korinci/Korintji, or Peak of Indrapura/Indrapoera) is an active stratovolcano and the highest mountain in Sumatra ...

with an elevation of 3,800 m (12,467 ft). , - ,

Sibayak Mount Sibayak ( id, Gunung Sibayak) is a stratovolcano overlooking the town of Berastagi in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Although its last eruption was more than a century ago, geothermal activity in the form of steam vents and hot springs re ...

, , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , 1881 , , , - ,

Sinabung Mount Sinabung (Indonesian: ''Gunung Sinabung'', Karo: ''Deleng Sinabung'') is a Pleistocene-to-Holocene stratovolcano of andesite and dacite in the Karo plateau of Karo Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia, from the Lake Toba supervolcano. Ma ...

, , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , 2 March 2021, , , - ,

, ,

, , align="right", , , 75000 BC (8) , , , - ,

Helatoba-Tarutung Helatoba-Tarutung is a group of sulfurous hot springs in the south of Lake Toba. It stretches 40 km along the Renun-Toru geological fault zone. The last eruption took place during the Pleistocene age. See also * List of volcanoes in ...

, ,

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

field , , align="right", , ,

, , , - , Imun , , unknown , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Sibualbuali , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Lubukraya , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Sorikmarapi , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (1) , , , - , Talakmau , , complex volcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Sarik-Gajah , ,

volcanic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and ...

, , align="right", unknown , , unknown , , , - ,

Marapi The Marapi (), or Mount Marapi ( min, ڬونوواڠ ماراڤي, Gunuang Marapi) is a complex volcano in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Its name means ''Mountain of Fire'', and it is the most active volcano in Sumatra. Its elevation is . A number of ...

, , complex volcano , , align="right", , , 2018 , , , - , Tandikat , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (1) , , , - , Talang , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (2) , , , - , Kerinci , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (on going) , , , - , Hutapanjang , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Sumbing , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (2) , , , - , Masurai , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , ,

, , , - , Kunyit , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Pendan , , unknown , , align="right", unknown , , unknown , , , - ,

Belirang-Beriti Belirang-Beriti is a complex volcano, volcanic complex that rises above the Semalako Plain in the south-west of Sumatra, Indonesia. It contains a 1.2 km-wide volcanic crater. See also * List of volcanoes in Indonesia References

V ...

, , complex volcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - ,

Bukit Daun Bukit Daun (, means: ''Leaves Hill'') is a stratovolcano, located in a sparsely populated region in Sumatra, Indonesia. A 600 m wide of crater lake is located at the summit. A smaller crater lake, Tologo Kecil, is found in the south-west fl ...

, , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Kaba , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (1) , , , - ,

Dempo Dempo Mining Corporation Limited is a prominent mining company from the western Indian state of Goa. The mineral business was founded by Mr. Vasantrao S. Dempo in 1941 along with his younger brother Mr. Vaikuntrao Dempo. Mr. Vasantrao S. Demp ...

, , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , 2018 (1) , , , - ,

Patah Pataḥ ( he, פַּתָּח ', , Biblical Hebrew: ') is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a horizontal line underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme which is close to the " sound in the English word ''far'' and ...

, , unknown , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Bukit Lumut Balai , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Besar , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , (1) , , , - ,

Ranau 'Ranau'' ( ms, Pekan Ranau) is the capital of the Ranau District in the West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 8,970 in 2010. Climate Ranau has a tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest cl ...

, ,

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

, , align="right", , , unknown , , , - ,

Sekincau Belirang Sekincau is a volcano with two calderas, Belirang (2 km wide) and Balak (2.5 km wide), located in the south of Sumatra, Indonesia. A 300 m wide of Volcanic crater, crater is found at the summit. Fumarole activities are found at the ...

, , caldera , , align="right", , , unknown , , , - , Suoh , , caldera , , align="right", , , (4) , , , - , Hulubelu , , caldera , , align="right", , , , , , - , Rajabasa , , stratovolcano , , align="right", , , , ,

Sunda Strait and Java

The

Sunda Strait The Sunda Strait ( id, Selat Sunda) is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java island, Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea with the Indian Ocean. Etymology The strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the weste ...

separates the islands of Sumatra and

with the volcanic island

lying between them. Krakatau erupted violently in 1883, destroying two-thirds of the island and leaving a large

under the sea. This cataclysmic explosion was heard as far away as the island of

Rodrigues Rodrigues (french: Île Rodrigues, link=yes ; Creole: ) is a autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, which include Mauritius and Réunion. Rodr ...

near

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

(approx. away). A new

, called Anak Krakatau (or the child of Krakatau), rose from the sea at the centre of the caldera in 1930. The other Krakatau

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

s from the 1883 eruptions are known as Sertung, Panjang and Rakata. Java is a relatively small island compared to Sumatra, but it has a higher concentration of active volcanoes. There are 45 active volcanoes on the island excluding 20 small

s and

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

in the

Dieng volcanic complex The Dieng Volcanic Complex ( jv, ꦢꦶꦲꦾꦁ, Dihyang) is a volcanic complex located on the Dieng Plateau in the Central Java, Indonesia, a complex of volcanoes. The volcanic complex consists of two or more of stratovolcanoes, more than 20 sm ...

and the young cones in the Tengger caldera complex. Some volcanoes are grouped together in the list below because of their close location.

Semeru The Semeru ( jv, ꦱꦼꦩꦺꦫꦸ), or Mount Semeru ( jv, ꦒꦸꦤꦸꦁꦱꦼꦩꦺꦫꦸ (Pegon:, Gunung Semeru), is an active volcano located in East Java, Indonesia. It is located in a subduction zone, where the Indo-Australian plate ...

and

Kelud The Kelud ( jv, ꦏꦼꦭꦸꦢ꧀, Kelud, sometimes spelled as ''Klut'', ''Cloot'', ''Kloet'', ''Kloete'', ''Keloed'' or ''Kelut'') is an active stratovolcano located in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. Like many Indonesian volcanoes and others on ...

are the most active volcanoes in Java. Mount Semeru has been continuously erupting since 1967. Mount Merapi has been named as one of the

Decade Volcanoes The Decade Volcanoes are 16 volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive volcanic eruption, ...

since 1995.

Ijen Map of Ijen Crater, where sulfur is mined The Ijen volcano complex is a group of composite volcanoes located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency of East Java, Indonesia. It is known for its blue fire, acidic crate ...

has a unique colourful

lake which is an extremely acidic natural reservoir ( pH<0.3). There are sulfur mining activities at Ijen, where miners collect highly concentrated sulfur rocks by hand. Note: Height of Krakatau is of Rakata, not of the active Anak Krakatau

Lesser Sunda Islands

The

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

is a small

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

which, from west to east, consists of

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

Lombok Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is rou ...

Sumbawa Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. Along with Lombok, it forms the province of West Nusa Tenggara, but there ...

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

Sumba Sumba ( id, Pulau Sumba) is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of , and the population was 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as a ...

and the

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

islands; all are located at the edge of the Australian continental shelf. Volcanoes in the area are formed because of

oceanic crust Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic cumu ...

s and the movement of the shelf itself. Some volcanoes completely form an island, for instance, the

Sangeang Api Sangeang Api (Gunung Api or Gunung Sangeang) is an active complex volcano on the island of Sangeang in Indonesia. It consists of two volcanic cones, Doro Api and Doro Mantoi. Sangeang Api is one of the most active volcanoes in the Lesser Sunda I ...

island.

, on Sumbawa island, erupted on 5 April 1815, with a scale 7 on the VEI and is considered the most violent eruption in recorded history.

Banda Sea

The

Banda Sea The Banda Sea ( id, Laut Banda, pt, Mar de Banda, tet, Tasi Banda) is one of four seas that surround the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, connected to the Pacific Ocean, but surrounded by hundreds of islands, including Timor, as well as the Halma ...

in the south of the Molucca archipelago includes a small

group of islands An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the List of islands ...

. Three major

tectonic plate Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

s beneath the sea,

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

Indo-Australian all of this entry re immigration is a complete fabrication Indian Australians or Indo-Australians are Australians of Indian ancestry. This includes both those who are Australian by birth, and those born in India or elsewhere in the Indian d ...

plates, have been converging since the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

epoch. Volcanoes in the Banda Sea are mainly

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s, but some are

submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...

es.

Sulawesi and Sangihe Islands

Four

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

s dominate the shape of

island (formerly known as Celebes). The central part is a high mountainous area, but mostly non-volcanic. Active volcanoes are found in the northern peninsula and continuously stretch to the north to

. The Sangihe Islands mark the border with the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kustgezicht met vissersboot met op de achtergrond de Vuurberg Bandanaira TMnr 10021959

Halmahera

island in the north of Molucca archipelago has been formed by the movement of three

tectonic plates Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

resulting in two intersecting mountain ranges, which form four rocky peninsulas separated by three deep bays. A

stretches from north to south in the west side of Halmahera, some of which are

s, for instance,

Gamalama Gamalama is a near-conical stratovolcano that comprises the entire Ternate island in Indonesia. The island lies off the western shore of Halmahera island in the north of the Maluku Islands. For centuries, Ternate was a center of Portuguese Empire, ...

and

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

. Gamalama's island name is

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the we ...

and it has been the centre for spice trading since the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

opened a

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

in 1512. Due to its location as the centre for spice trading during the

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...

, historical records of volcanic eruptions in Halmahera have been available as far back as the early 16th century. Ternate

Major eruptions

Below is a list of selected major eruptions of volcanoes in Indonesia, sorted chronologically by the starting date of the eruption. Only eruptions with scale 3 or above on VEI are given with known sources and fatalities, except if smaller scale eruptions resulted some fatalities. Notes: cv=central vent eruption, pf=

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of bu ...

s, lf=

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

s, lm=

lahar A lahar (, from jv, ꦮ꧀ꦭꦲꦂ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. Lahars are extreme ...

mudflow A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/second. Mudflows contain a significa ...

s, cl=

crater lake Crater Lake (Klamath language, Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The ...

eruption, ph=

phreatic eruption A phreatic eruption, also called a phreatic explosion, ultravulcanian eruption or steam-blast eruption, occurs when magma heats ground water or surface water. The extreme temperature of the magma (anywhere from ) causes near-instantaneous evapo ...

, ld= lava dome extrusion, cc= caldera collapse, se=

submarine eruption Submarine eruptions are those volcano eruptions which take place beneath the surface of water. These occur at constructive margins, subduction zones and within tectonic plates due to hotspots. This eruption style is far more prevalent than subae ...

, fa= fumarole activity, rf=radial fissure eruption.

References

General references

Notes

External links

Volcanological Survey Indonesia

Indonesian Volcanoes and mountains of Indonesia

Volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

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