Galunggung

1822 eruption

Galunggung had its first historically documented eruption in 1822. It produced pyroclastic flows and lahars that killed 4,011 people.

Hazardous eruption of 1982

The last major eruption on Galunggung was in 1982, which had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 4 and indirectly killed 18people in traffic accidents and by starvation. This eruption also brought the dangers of volcanic ash to aviation to worldwide attention after two Boeing 747 passenger jets flying downwind of the eruption suffered temporary engine failures and damage to exterior surfaces, with both planes being forced to make emergency landings at Jakarta airport.

One plane—British Airways Flight 009, carrying 248 passengers and 15 crew traveling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Perth, Australia, on June 24, 1982—accidentally entered the ash cloud at night, about 150 km downwind of the volcano. All four engines failed due to the build-up of volcanic ash, and the aircraft descended for 16minutes, losing 7500 m of its 11500 m altitude, until the crew managed to restart the engines and land in Jakarta.

Three weeks later, on July 14, a Singapore Airlines airplane with approximately 230passengers aboard also inadvertently entered the cloud at night, and three of its four engines stopped. The crew succeeded in restarting one of the engines after descending 2400 m. Both aircraft suffered serious damage to their engines and exterior surfaces.

Historical avalanche deposits

A hummock deposit known as the Ten Thousand Hills of Tasikmalaya attracted the attention of early-20th-century geologists. Houses were built on the hummocks since they provided good defence against hostile people, and being above the paddy fields were free of mosquitoes and rats. Originally it was thought that either it had been formed by a lahar caused by the release of the waters of the crater lake, or that it was man-made, composed of rocks and boulders dumped there after being cleared from paddy fields.

However, in the light of the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980 and from examination of the Mount Shasta deposits, it has become clear that the hummocks are a debris-avalanche deposit. Like these mountains, Galunggung has a horseshoe-shaped crater indicating a massive landslide, and examination of shattered lava blocks revealed them to be similar to deposits on the other two volcanoes. According to radiocarbon dating of samples taken from a lava flow, the landslide happened within the last 23,000 years.

References

References

1. {{cite gvp
2. (February 14, 2012). "Sejak 1982, Baru Kali ini Galunggung Berstatus Waspada (in Indonesian)".
3. (January 27, 2021). "Volcano World - Galunggung".
4. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 747-236B G-BDXH Jakarta". [[Aviation Safety Network]].
5. "A Singapore Airlines jumbo jet flew into a plume...".