Week 4 - Volcanoes

 

A few months ago I hiked up the Volcano Mount Batur. Mount Batur is an active volcano that is located at the center of two concentric calderas on the island of Bali. It is located in Indonesia right on the ring of fire, where there is more dense oceanic lithosphere subducts under continental lithosphere. There is evidence of recent past eruptions with all the igneous rocks that sound the volcano. Going up the volcano, the dirt is mostly a dark black color with some of it being a light grey. There were a lot of lava rocks as well. Outside of the volcano there were small villages that used the soil to plant gardens and their crops. You can see the ocean from the top of the volcano. The first documented eruption of Batur was in 1804, and the most recent eruption was in 2000. Historical eruptions have been mild to moderate explosive, sometimes with lava emission. This volcano remains at a safe level, and has no indications of increased volcanic activity. I was very interested in seeing what the inside looked like, but it was very cloudy that morning. I am including a picture of what the inside looked like anyway. Once we got to the top, our guide was able to make breakfast for us fresh from the heat that came from the volcano.

 

The crops outside of the volcano

 

Inside Mount Batur

 

The rocks hiking up Mount Batur