Soputan is a

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and peri ...

in Indonesia. It is on the northern arm of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu ...

island and rises to an elevation of 1,785 m (5,853 ft). The geologically young and mostly unvegetated cone is primarily constructed of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

rock. It sits on the southern rim of the Tondano caldera, which formed in the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...

period. The volcano is one of Sulawesi's most active, with 39 confirmed eruptions in the last 600 years. Eruptive activity at Soputan typically consists of

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...

flows,

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions ...

s and Strombolian-style explosions.

Eruptions

Historical eruptions have taken place at the summit crater, and Aeseput, a vent on the volcano's north-east flank, which was formed in 1906. The volcano has erupted in: 1450, 1785, 1819, 1833, 1845, 1890, 1901, 1906, 1907, 1908–09, 1910, 1911–12, 1913, 1915, 1917, 1923–24, 1947, 1953, 1966–67, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1991–96, 2000–03, 2004, 2005, 2005–06, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2018. On the morning of 6 June 2008, Soputan erupted sending pyroclastic flows as far as 4 km down its slopes, and ash 2 km into the air. An eruption at 21:03 UTC on 2 July 2011 sent an ash column 5,000 metres into the air. On 6 January 2015, an eruption began when an explosion caused a partial collapse of a summit lava dome, sending an avalanche down the west flank. On 4 January 2016, the volcano exploded sending an ash plume to 2000m, which prompted authorities to establish a 4 km exclusion zone around the volcano. In 2018, Soputan erupted on 3 October, and again twice on 16 December. All three times the volcano spewed a massive column of ash more than 6,000 m (19,700 ft) into the sky. The October eruption occurred about a week after a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the island.

Gallery

File:Soputan-Manimporok dari Desa Tombatu.JPG, Mt. Soputan (left) and Mt. Manimporok view from Tombatu Village

References

{{Authority control Stratovolcanoes of Indonesia Active volcanoes of Indonesia Mountains of Sulawesi Volcanoes of Sulawesi Landforms of North Sulawesi Holocene stratovolcanoes

Eruptions

Gallery

See also

References