Indonesia is often called the crossroads of all roads in Southeast Asia. This is a country of more than thirteen thousand islands, about four hundred tribes and nationalities live in it. Back in the XIII century, Marco Polo wrote about this archipelago: “The islands floated out with flower baskets, breathed with spicy aromas. It is hard to believe that the earth itself gave birth to all this, that these trees were not brought here from afar on elephants. Six centuries later, Russian poets Konstantin Balmont and Valery Bryusov sang the beauty of this fabulous land.
There are more than four hundred volcanoes in Indonesia, about one hundred of them are considered active. One of the most beautiful volcanoes in Indonesia is Merapi. The ascent to its top begins in a light mimosa forest. In July, when the time of flowering of these plants comes, the air is filled with an unearthly aroma. The slopes of Merapi are cut by deep grooves with vertical walls. One gets the impression that someone has walked a giant rogue from the top to the rice fields below. The most fertile soil in the Merapi region (translated as "Fire place") allows intensive cultivation of not only rice, but also cassava, sugar cane, coffee. Plantations rise almost to the middle of the mountain.
Millions of Indonesians live at the foot of the volcano, and every day they see its majestic peak, rising for almost three kilometers in the morning fog. However, the most beautiful Merapi is one of the most formidable fire-breathing mountains. It is probably the most active of the volcanoes in Indonesia, because it sows death around itself more often than others. An old farmer who owns one of the plots scattered on the side of the fire-breathing mountain said: “We know him too well. As our grandfathers and grandfathers of our grandfathers knew it before us … We can grow anything here. To harvest as many crops as we want … And we owe this to Merapi. But how much grief he brought us. There is no family here that would not suffer from its endless eruptions."
Indeed, Merapi, on average, explodes every seven years, unleashing streams of lava and ash clouds on the surrounding area. And small eruptions are generally difficult to count. The eruptions claim hundreds of lives, but … volcanic ash descending on the fields turns the lands around Merapi into the most fertile in all Java - the breadbasket of the region.
Volcano Merapi is located thirty kilometers from the ancient city of Yogyakarta in the south of central Java. During the dry season - from late April to mid-November - the volcano is visible at a distance of fifty kilometers. In the rainy season, which falls at the end of the year, Merapi is enveloped in clouds of steam and smoke. Nearby residents watch Merapi's breathing with caution. For seventeen centuries, it confirmed its reputation as the most dangerous volcano on the planet.
Before a major eruption, Merapi throws out clouds of hot ash and ash, obscuring the tropical sun. The earth begins to tear from under their feet, but people know: the worst is yet to come … With a complete eruption, Merapi throws stones the size of a small house. Rivers of red lava rush through the southwestern edge of the seething crater, carving a new channel for themselves on the body of the ancient land. Lava tongues swallow everything they meet in their path: fields and crops, farms and villages, roads and bridges, dams and forests. And also all living things …
In the burning fury of the volcano, everything created by man and nature disappears. This has been repeated many times in the thousand-year history of Java. One of the worst eruptions of Merapi happened in 1906. A crevice appeared in the mountain, and part of its cone slid into the valley. Then a monstrous explosion followed, completing the destruction. As a result of such a spontaneous eruption, the Indian-Javanese state of Mataram, which reached a high prosperity, perished. On its territory there were several cities with numerous temples and magnificent palaces. Some of them were still being completed in the year of the eruption. In the XIV century, he covered with ashes the famous Borobodur temple 25 meters high, located twenty kilometers west of the crater. Borobodur, which is called the eighth wonder of the world,was built in the 6th century and abandoned under mysterious circumstances about six hundred years later. Some historians believe that Merapi was the reason.
Merapi Crater is different from most of the rest. It is a notch, like a huge quarry dug by powerful explosions. These explosions gave rise to terrible scorching clouds, of which Merapi has, perhaps, more than any other volcano. The crater is composed of hard, massive rocks. For this reason, its walls are steep, in places strictly vertical. At night, it can be seen that they are dotted with dozens of small holes, from where crimson-red flames burst out. By day, the smoking haze and green fields three thousand meters below provide a peaceful picture. But as soon as darkness falls, Merapi reveals her formidable face.
Promotional video:
The most devastating eruption of Merapi occurred in 1672. Then the volcano changed the channels of nine rivers flowing near its foot, wiped out dozens of cities and villages from the face of the earth, completely redrawn the landscape over a vast territory. Then the Dutch owned Indonesia, and they calculated that about three thousand people died in that disaster.
In the 19th century, the Dutch colonists recorded nine major eruptions of Merapi; in the first half of the 20th century, the volcano exploded thirteen times. In 1930, he destroyed several villages with his scorching cloud, while the number of victims reached several hundred people. The volcano continued to rampage and then. In 1969, the Merapi fire tornado claimed twenty human lives.
After this eruption, a government project emerged to study volcanic rocks and control their condition. The project was carried out with great difficulty, and in 1974 Merapi exploded again, killing nine people and filling the surrounding area with new million cubic meters of debris and flooding them with lava. The project participants barely had time to resume their tedious work on cleaning the slopes of the volcano, when Merapi reminded of himself again - in the same 1974. True, this time he was in an almost peaceful mood. He destroyed only two villages with 114 houses. There were no casualties.
And the next year the volcano woke up again, and this time it was not so meek. He seemed to be annoyed by the army of men crawling along its slopes. This time, Merapi destroyed a large village, demolished five bridges and razed 387 houses to the ground. 29 people were killed.
Even in "calm" times, the volcano throws out about one and a half million cubic meters of stones annually. During the eruption of 1984, it produced five million cubic meters of gas per day. One of the project engineers said: "Working here with its infinity often leads us to despair." But among the Javanese themselves, feelings of love and hate, fear and awe of the magnificent volcano are so great that outsiders often cannot understand them. One Javanese expressed these feelings as follows: “This volcano is for us, as for our ancestors, heaven and hell, taken together. He tells us about ourselves. You may not like it, but it cannot be ignored. Merapi is a mirror of our soul, its dark and light sides”.
HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS. N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev
