Indonesia lies on the ring of fire, and is in one of the most geologically active areas in the world. It is very frequent to earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. This is because the ring of fire is tectonically active and is home to 90% of the world’s earthquakes and dormant and active volcanoes. The plates, (which are the Pacific Plate, Australian Plate, Philippine Plate, and Eurasian Plate) all come together where Indonesia lies and causes pull apart and converging movement. This means that there are four tectonic plates underneath Indonesia constantly changing the geological landscape, causing natural disruptions in between. These plates are constantly sliding past each other causing friction. The volcanoes of Indonesia are mainly the most active in the world. The subducting Eurasian plate and pacific plate is what forms these volcanoes. The converging plates with subduction cause volcanoes and earthquakes. Earthquakes are also caused by the tectonic movement. The Indian Oceanic plate is being subducted under the Eurasian plate because the continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust. It is also interesting that a geologic fault line runs the length of Sumatra, The earthquakes here are mostly caused by the converging Australian plate.

 

Mount Merapi of Indonesia

If I could prevent one of these natural disasters, it would be hard to choose because each one can affect thousands of lives and are many times extremely devastating to the natural environment also. Although, if I could I would prevent volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes cause many different outcomes to the land of Indonesia, and many times they affect neighboring countries. Indonesia has been home to some of the most devastating volcanic eruptions in recorded history. The eruption of Mount Tambora was the most violent of all history, causing widespread agricultural failures throughout Europe and the Eastern United States/Canada. This just goes to show how these eruptions can physically affect many other countries in the world. The most active volcanoes are Kelud and Mount Merapi of Java Island. Mount Merapi is a stratovolcano which has erupted more than 80 times since AD 1000. In 2010 an explosion killed 320 and misplaced 300,000 or more people. Kelud has erupted 30 times in the same time frame, with the most recent explosion occurring in April 2013.

My recommendations for these issues is to have information more readily available to the public, and have training sessions for villagers to give them better tools to be prepared when an explosion does occur. There should also be a fund set aside mainly for aftercare of an explosion. These things would include water, food, and proper things to help with breathing (since the air will be highly toxic.) The most risky areas would probably be those the closest to the volcano, where many times people work to harvest crops that grow near volcanic slopes. These areas of course would need to be cared for before the rest. Although, the Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency has set boundaries around many volcanoes, where nobody is permitted to venture into or live. There are also evacuation routes readily available for many volcanoes. If I had to live in Indonesia, I would try to set up camp as far away from the nearest volcano as possible, which might be hard because there are a LOT of them. I would try to keep myself also on lower ground, since it would take longer for the magma flows to reach me.

 

Sources:

1.     http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/earth/geography/1112787031/pacific-ring-of-fire/

 

2.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Merapi

 

3.     Keller/ DeVicchio, Natural Hazards textbook.