Page 90 - Super Earth Encyclopedia

FIERY ISLAND

VOLCANIC JAVA “Indonesia

has 130 active

The island of Java is a mass of volcanoes that have volcanoes.”
erupted where one plate of Earth’s crust is sinking
beneath another. Water carried down with the sinking
crust changes the chemistry of the hot rock below,
making it melt and triggering the eruption of volcanoes
along the plate boundary. Where this happens on the
ocean floor, chains of volcanic islands called island arcs
are formed, sometimes joining up to form bigger islands
like Java. These volcanoes produce sticky gas-filled lava
that may flow from the crater or explode into the air in
huge ash clouds. The ash and lava build up in layers
to form steep-sided cones known as stratovolcanoes.

AT A GLANCE
• LOCATION Java, Indonesia

• VOLCANO TYPE Stratovolcanoes
• MAXIMUM HEIGHT Mount Semeru
rises to 12,060 ft (3,676 m)
• AGE Java formed from erupting
volcanoes within the last
2–3 million years

STATS AND FACTS

JAVA MOUNT SEMERU
Java is part of the
Sunda Arc – one of Java has 45 active Semeru, the
volcanoes, and
highest volcano
FIRE AND STEAM The most catastrophic MOUNT MERAPI SUPER CLUSTER
the most volcanic
on Java, has ash
many more are
regions on Earth.
explosions every
dormant, but
10–30 minutes.
not extinct.
eruptions in recent
history—Tambora
(1815) and Krakatoa
Most volcanoes
Merapi has
(1883)—have
on Java are only
produced more
occurred on the
about 50 miles
pyroclastic flows
Sunda Arc close
(80 km) apart.
than any other
88 to Java. volcano on Earth.
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