Following the eruption of Merapi volcano (Java, Indonesia) in October-November 2010, CAR director Dr Susanna Jenkins took part in a multi-disciplinary mission to the area to assess the range of impacts.  The team was comprised of experts in the medical and health hazard aspects of eruptions, the agricultural and infrastructural impacts and the volcanological characteristics of eruptions.

Merapi volcano is the most active volcano in Indonesia.  For approximately the last 100 years frequent eruptions at Merapi have produced relatively small dome collapse events with pyroclastic density currents – fast-moving currents of very hot ash, gas and clasts – not extending more than 10km from the summit.  Late last year, however, an increasingly destructive series of eruptions caused pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) extending up to 15.5km from the volcano and resulted in the deaths of more than 380 people, including the spiritual ‘gatekeeper’ of Merapi, Mbah Maridjan. 

PDCs are one of the most destructive and dangerous of all volcanic phenomena and particularly important in terms of assessing potential hazard and risk to populations.  This most recent Merapi eruption provided a unique opportunity to study the impacts of an explosive eruption upon populated areas: over 1 million people live within 20km of the volcano. 

Peter Baxter (University of Cambridge), Jochen Berger (University of Hohenheim), David Damby (University of Durham), Susanna Jenkins (Cambridge Architectural Research) and Jean-Christophe Komorowski (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris) left for the area approximately three weeks after the eruption to work with Indonesian scientists to collect immediate and perishable field data.  The timing of the field mission was deliberate in that teams could enter affected areas safely yet not enough time had passed that damage and geological data had been removed by rains or clean-up. 

The study objectives were to collect data on the nature and extent of casualties and health impacts, including survival factors; the nature and extent of physical damage to buildings, infrastructure and agriculture; and volcanological characteristics of the damaging volcanic processes and associated deposits of the 2010 eruption.

Detailed building, casualty and volcanological studies were carried out in a number of villages to the south of the volcano with further health hazard and agricultural studies carried out to the west.  The data collected will help to better constrain the volcanological characteristics and processes associated with the October-November eruptions, the behaviour of PDCs and the extent of areas at risk in future eruptions at Merapi. 

Empirical data collected will also inform relationships between volcanic process, deposits and the damage sustained by casualties, buildings and infrastructure during volcanic eruptions – aspects critical to disaster planning and casualty treatment.  A report of our initial findings will be available on the CAR website this summer.

Contact: Susanna Jenkins

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