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Report on Semeru (Indonesia) — July 1987


Semeru

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 7 (July 1987)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.

Semeru (Indonesia) Glowing rockfall avalanches enter new drainages

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1987. Report on Semeru (Indonesia) (McClelland, L., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 12:7. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198707-263300



Semeru

Indonesia

8.108°S, 112.922°E; summit elev. 3657 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


. . . Vulcanian activity during July. Beginning 15 July, glowing rockfall avalanches from the crater entered the Tretes drainage, which lies between the Kobokan drainage SE of the crater and the Kembar, S of the crater. Apparently the upper Kobokan and Kembar drainages have both been filled with material, so avalanches have begun to overflow from them into the Tretes drainage. This change in the flow pattern does not represent a significant change in eruptive activity, but only a change in the direction in which rockfall avalanches are channeled out of the summit crater.

Geological Summary. Semeru, the highest volcano on Java, and one of its most active, lies at the southern end of a volcanic massif extending north to the Tengger caldera. The steep-sided volcano, also referred to as Mahameru (Great Mountain), rises above coastal plains to the south. Gunung Semeru was constructed south of the overlapping Ajek-ajek and Jambangan calderas. A line of lake-filled maars was constructed along a N-S trend cutting through the summit, and cinder cones and lava domes occupy the eastern and NE flanks. Summit topography is complicated by the shifting of craters from NW to SE. Frequent 19th and 20th century eruptions were dominated by small-to-moderate explosions from the summit crater, with occasional lava flows and larger explosive eruptions accompanied by pyroclastic flows that have reached the lower flanks of the volcano.

Information Contacts: VSI.