Eruption on Indonesia’s volcanic islands: a review of potential hazards, fatalities, and management

Abstract

Among the 17,504 islands in Indonesia, there are a number of volcanic islands with active volcanoes amid human inhabitation. These conditions can be dangerous when the volcano erupts. This paper provides a review of eruptions on Indonesia’s volcanic islands, especially in potential hazard, fatalities, and management. There were 22 Indonesia’s volcanic islands with records of volcanic eruptions during the Holocene era. Seventy three percent of them are classified as active and have a high potential to endanger the surrounding population who generally live on small islands. More than 150,000 people have been evacuated in 25 volcanic unrest of 9 volcanic island during 1966 to 2017. The largest human fatalities from eruption on volcanic island was caused by volcanic tsunami. Since 416 to 2018 there were 19 volcanic tsunami events on Indonesia’s volcanic islands, resulting in 41,328 death tolls. With this review, we hope that our knowledge of volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s volcanic island can be improved and the community living around the volcanoes can be more prepared to face a volcanic crisis that can occur at any time.