Mount Tondano in the province of

North Sulawesi North Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is mainly located on the Minahasa Peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia, but also includes various small archipel ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

, Indonesia, has a 20 × 30 km wide

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

which was formed in the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

Early Pliocene Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

by a massive eruption. Post caldera activity includes

pyroclastic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

flows and

geothermal Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: * Geothermal energy, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth * Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal he ...

areas in the caldera area.

Lake Tondano Lake Tondano is the largest lake in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The lake is approximately from the city of Manado and is above sea level. In recent years there have been reports of decreasing water levels at Lake Tondano; from 1934 when it was ...

lies in the east side of the caldera. The 5 km long and 3.5 km wide ellipsoidal Pangolombian caldera lies entirely within the Tondano Caldera, and formed from a large eruption of an older Somma volcano. In more recent times, the somma volcanoes of

Soputan Soputan is a stratovolcano in Indonesia. It is on the northern arm of Sulawesi 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 and basalt r ...

, Sempu, Lokon-Empung and Mahawu have been constructed along the rim of the Tondano caldera, with Soputan being the youngest and most frequently active of the group. The Tondano caldera has been investigated as a potential source for

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the crust (geology), crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for m ...

to support the growing population in the vicinity of the caldera. Energy demand has been growing in Indonesia, and the Tondano caldera system could potentially provide clean energy for thousands of residents in northern Sulawesi.

References

Mountains of Sulawesi Volcanoes of Sulawesi Calderas of Indonesia Volcanic crater lakes Landforms of North Sulawesi {{NSulawesi-geo-stub

See also

References