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Report on Karangetang (Indonesia) — September 1980


Karangetang

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 9 (September 1980)
Managing Editor: David Squires.

Karangetang (Indonesia) Cauliflower-shaped cloud; incandescent tephra

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1980. Report on Karangetang (Indonesia) (Squires, D., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 5:9. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198009-267020



Karangetang

Indonesia

2.781°N, 125.407°E; summit elev. 1797 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


A seismograph recorded an explosion . . . on 12 September at 0410. The next day at 1140, a cauliflower-shaped eruption column rose 1,200 m above the crater. Similar explosions had occurred on 3 July and three times in August, depositing incandescent tephra over an area 3 km in diameter.

Geological Summary. Karangetang (Api Siau) volcano lies at the northern end of the island of Siau, about 125 km NNE of the NE-most point of Sulawesi. The stratovolcano contains five summit craters along a N-S line. It is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, with more than 40 eruptions recorded since 1675 and many additional small eruptions that were not documented (Neumann van Padang, 1951). Twentieth-century eruptions have included frequent explosive activity sometimes accompanied by pyroclastic flows and lahars. Lava dome growth has occurred in the summit craters; collapse of lava flow fronts have produced pyroclastic flows.

Information Contacts: A. Sudradjat and L. Pardyanto, VSI.