Ruang is the southernmost

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

in 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 ...

arc. It comprises an

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 ...

4 × 5 km wide. The summit contains a partial

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...

, and reaches some 2,379 ft in altitude. From its summit, Klabat's peak in the south, that of Siau to the north, and

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 ...

to the east can all be seen.

Eruptions

The first recorded eruption was in 1808. Dr. Adolf Meyer witnessed a large eruption in 1871. Ruang was uninhabited at the time, but the inhabitants of nearby

Tagulandang A photo dating from 1948 Tagulandang (''Pulau Tagulandang'') is one of the Sangihe Islands, situated off the northern tip of Sulawesi, Indonesia. It forms three districts in the Sitaro Islands Regency of North Sulawesi province. It is located b ...

had many plantations on its slopes. The eruption destroyed these in minutes and caused a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

that obliterated most of their large village, situated on Tagulandang, opposite Ruang. Most of the village's inhabitants drowned, and their bodies could afterwards be seen on the beach.

References

{{commons category Stratovolcanoes of Indonesia Mountains of North Sulawesi VEI-4 volcanoes Active volcanoes of Indonesia Holocene stratovolcanoes

Eruptions

See also

References