Sangeang Api (Gunung Api or Gunung Sangeang) is an active

complex volcano A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano or a volcanic complex, is a mixed landform consisting of related volcanic centers and their associated lava flows and pyroclastic rock. They may form due to changes in eruptive habit or in t ...

on the island of Sangeang 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 ...

. It consists of two volcanic cones, Doro Api and Doro Mantoi. Sangeang Api is one of the most active volcanoes in the Lesser Sunda Islands. It erupted in 1988 and the island's inhabitants were evacuated. Between its first recorded eruption in 1512 and 1989 it erupted 17 times. It erupted again during December 2012 and May 2014. The island of Sangeang is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It is located northeast of

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 th ...

in the

Flores Sea The Flores Sea covers of water in Indonesia. The sea is bounded on the north by the island of Celebes and on the south by Sunda Islands of Flores and Sumbawa. Geography The seas that border the Flores Sea are the Bali Sea (to the west), Java ...

, and is 13 km wide with an area of 153 km².

The earliest document mentioning about the Sang Hyang Api volcano was found in 14th century Majapahit script of

Nagarakretagama The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a '' kakawin'' by Mpu Pr ...

. "Gunung Api" also appears as the name for the mountain in the first chapter of the novel ''

The Long Journey ''The Long Journey'' ( da, Den Lange Rejse) is a series of six novels by Danish author and poet Johannes V. Jensen, appearing between 1908 and 1922. The books deal with the author's theories on evolution, backdropped against a description of hum ...

'' by Johannes V. Jensen.

2014 Eruption

Since mid-June 2013, authorities had put the volcano on 'high alert' for a possible eruption. On May 30, 2014, a major eruption occurred at around 3:55 p.m. local time. Farmers working on the island were evacuated. Ash and smoke quickly rose to an altitude 15–20 km (≈10–16 miles) into the sky. By the next morning, the

ash cloud Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to refer t ...

had crossed the north-west coast of Australia in the Kimberley region, and airlines had cancelled flights into and from Darwin, Northern Territory. It later went as far as Alice Springs in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

. On 31 May some flights from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to Bali were also cancelled.

Climate

Sangeang Api has a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(Cfb). It has moderate rainfall from June to September and heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the remaining months.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=Volcano Mount Sangiang Api erupts in Indonesia, farmers evacuated , url=http://news.biharprabha.com/2014/05/volcano-mount-sangiang-erupts-in-indonesia-farmers-evacuated/ , work=IANS , date=30 May 2014 , publisher=news.biharprabha.com , accessdate=30 May 2014 {{cite book , title = Global Volcanism 1975-1985 , author = Smithsonian Institution / SEAN , author-link = Global Volcanism Program , editor = Lindsay McClelland , editor2 = Tom Simkin , editor3 = Marjorie Summers , editor4 = Elizabeth Nielsen , editor5 = Thomas C Stein , year = 1989 , publisher = Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ, and American Geophysical Union, Washington DC , isbn = 0-13-357203-X , pages
217–219
, url = https://archive.org/details/globalvolcanism10000unse/page/217 {{cite book , last=Monk , first=K.A. , author2=Fretes, Y. , author3=Reksodiharjo-Lilley, G. , title=The Ecology of Nusa Tenggara and Maluku , year=1996 , page=7 , publisher=Periplus Editions Ltd. , location=Hong Kong , isbn=962-593-076-0 {{cite web , title=Ash grounds flights to Darwin, Bali , url=http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/05/31/ash-grounds-flights-darwin-bali , publisher=www.sbs.com.au , accessdate=1 June 2014

External links

* NASA Space Shuttle images: *
STS112-E-5628
Directly from above volcano. *
STS61A-40-62
Volcanoes of the Lesser Sunda Islands Complex volcanoes Mountains of Indonesia Active volcanoes of Indonesia Lesser Sunda Islands 21st-century volcanic events