Bookings for flights from Moscow to the island of Bali, where the airport is closed due to a volcanic eruption, have decreased tenfold today. Volcano Agung has not ejected such a column of ash for half a century. And now, according to various sources, it rises to a height of four to eight kilometers. Everything within a radius of eight kilometers is covered with a thin layer. Among those who cannot fly from the island are from five to six thousand of our compatriots.

The red-hot wall of smoke and ash over the island of Bali exceeds 4 kilometers. An orange glow at the base is a sign that lava has already gushed from the mouth of Mount Agung. The sacred mountain woke up over the weekend. Today the alarm level has been raised to the maximum level - level four. Cooled streams of volcanic rock mixed with water and mud - here they are called lahars - reached the foot of the mountain by morning, threatening the villages located nearby. About 100 thousand people were ordered to leave the adjacent zone within a radius of 12 kilometers.

There is a high probability that even more will happen in the near future. powerful eruption than the day before.

There is a real collapse at the only airport in Denpasar. Along with local residents, about 60 thousand tourists are held hostage by the volcano and cannot fly from the resort island. Five thousand flights have been canceled and until Agung calms down, not a single airline will risk taking the plane into the air. There are now about 6,000 Russian citizens in Bali. But our people are not so easily frightened by the local vagaries of the elements.

“We live 60 kilometers from the volcano. Yesterday they reported that some flights had been cancelled, today the airport was closed. Last night we traveled 25 kilometers to the foot of the volcano. It’s very beautiful, the eruption of smoke and ash. We talked to the locals, they say it’s not dangerous. Life goes on, schoolchildren go to school. We think that it will rise and rise and calm down,” says Sofya Selina.

“The ashes began to settle, we are 30 kilometers away. Our house is in ashes, we understand that we need to move away from the volcano. Small child, he is 5 months old. We need to go further. IN this moment you breathe normally. The most dangerous thing is the ten-kilometer zone, an explosion can occur there,” says Alexey Vimana.

Now the only way to leave Bali is by ferries. The Russian Embassy in Indonesia posts all the necessary information in in social networks. Ferries transport passengers to neighboring islands. The airports there are still open.

The most powerful eruption in the history of mankind is considered to be the Indonesian stratovolcano Tambora. It is located next to the island of Bali. In 1815, more than 70 thousand people died from it, and because of the ash cloud that rose into the sky, the so-called “volcanic winter” began, which provoked crop failure and famine throughout the northern hemisphere.

Agung is a volcano of the same type. Its track record is not so impressive so far, but during the eruption in 1963-64, no one seemed to have enough. About one and a half thousand people died then, and even residents of Northern Europe observed the volcanic twilight.

How dangerous is a volcanic eruption in Bali (photo gallery)

Actually popular resort Mount Agung continues to erupt in Indonesia. Some tourists are leaving the country; authorities have announced an evacuation. local residents. Photo gallery DW.

• Ash cloud



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Lava flow emissions



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Highest point in Bali



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Paradise under the ashes



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

"Still safe"



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Airports are closed



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Magma and ash



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Precautions in Bali

• Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

  Ash cloud

  The eruption of Mount Agung in northeast Bali began last weekend. As a result, nearby resorts and villages were covered in a thin layer of ash. Dark gray clouds above the volcano's summit were visible from the island's capital, Denpasar, and even from the neighboring island of Lombok.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Lava flow emissions

As night fell, a bright glow from the crater illuminated a cloud of ash that rose 6,000 meters above the summit of Mount Agung. It began showing signs of activity back in September, prompting local authorities to upgrade the volcano's danger status to emergency and evacuate 140,000 people living nearby. However, later, on October 29, the danger level was lowered.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Highest point in Bali

Volcano Agung, 3142 meters high, is the highest point of the island. As a result of gas and ash emissions, the work of two airports was stopped at once - on the island of Bali and on neighboring island Lombok.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Paradise under the ashes

Bali Island is the main one tourist centre Indonesia. Beautiful ocean beaches, temples and lush forests attract about 5 million tourists a year. But according to Made Sugiri, a spokesman local hotel Mahagiri Panoramic, the number of visitors has fallen in recent months: “We are out of the danger zone, but, like other resorts in the region, of course, eruptions cause an outflow of tourists.”



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

"Still safe"

Indonesia's disaster management agency says Bali is "still safe" for tourists. Agung's emergency status remained at level 3 (one point below the highest alert) over the weekend, the agency said in a statement. At the same time, despite a number of eruptions, volcanic activity remains relatively stable.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Airports are closed

Things were different with the status of air travel over the island - on Sunday, November 26, the danger level here reached its highest level - red. Although many flights continued to operate, hundreds of people were stranded. As a result, the airport on the island of Lombok was closed first, and then the main international Airport Ngurah Rai in Bali.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Exclusion zone around the volcano

The latest lava eruptions have displaced about 25,000 people. Authorities called on everyone inside the exclusion zone within a 7.5-kilometer radius of the volcano's crater to evacuate immediately. Mount Agung is one of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Its last major eruption, which occurred in 1963, killed more than a thousand people.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Magma and ash

Volcanologists described the renewed activity of Mount Agung on November 25 as a phreatic explosion, that is, an eruption with evaporation of smoke caused by heating and expansion of groundwater. On November 26, authorities announced that, judging by the settling of ash, a magmatic eruption had already begun.



Eruption of Mount Agung on the island of Bali

Precautions in Bali

"Mt Agung is still spewing ash, but we need to keep a close eye and be prepared for a more powerful, explosive eruption," warns Indonesian volcanologist Gede Suantika. Soldiers and police are distributing protective masks to people in nearby villages and resorts.

Volcanoes in Bali are three peaks located in the central and eastern parts of the island. Two of them are active. There are also several dozen extinct and sleeping ones. They form a large mountain range in the central part of the island. The mountains in Bali are sacred and play an important role in the religious practices of the locals. In recent decades, the peaks have become popular among tourists.

You can learn more about them by clicking on one of the names below. And in this article I want to talk about general characteristics all the mountains and volcanoes of the island, as well as what they might be interesting for.

The island's attractions are very diverse. There are ancient temples and beautiful natural parks, and rivers with waterfalls, and beaches, and much more. Everything on the site interesting places divided into categories. You are currently in the "Mountains and Volcanoes" category. To find out about other attractions, go to the “Places by Category” section and click the button with the desired name. Full list objects you can see by clicking the “All places” button.

Description of volcanoes and mountains

The island of Bali, like all of Indonesia, is part of the huge Pacific Ring of Fire. It is located at the point of contact between oceanic, island and continental lithospheric plates. The ring stretches from New Zealand, through Oceania, the east coast of Asia, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands and West Coast Northern and South America. The belt is interrupted only off the coast of Antarctica, near the state of California in the USA and Vancouver in Canada.

In the region of the largest ocean on Earth there are three ocean plates - the Pacific itself and two small ones - Nazca and Cocos. The Indo-Australian, Philippine and Eurasian plates are also adjacent here. Oceanic plates gradually subduct under continental or island plates, since their density is higher. Sometimes it even sinks into the earth's mantle. This phenomenon is called subduction. It leads to the formation of active volcanoes where lithospheric plates interact, and earthquakes constantly occur here. Thus, 75% of all active volcanoes on our planet are located in the Pacific Belt of Fire and almost 90% of earthquakes are recorded.

Bali is located in the subduction zone of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates under the Sunda plate (part of the Eurasian plate). At the bottom of the ocean, at the junction of lithospheric plates, the Sunda or Java Trench is formed with high seismic and volcanic activity. The geological age of the Bali mountains is relatively young (approximately 200-500 million years, some mountains were formed 20 million years ago). They belong to the Paleozoic, Mesozoic era, Neogene and Quaternary periods.

Now I will tell you about the volcanoes and mountains themselves.

General characteristics of mountains and volcanoes

The mountain range stretches from west to east, dividing the island into northern and southern parts, and significantly influences the climate. In the northern half it is dry, in the southern half it is wet. That's why in the south more rivers Agriculture has been developed, involving rice cultivation and irrigation. It is much colder in the mountains than on the plains. There is a lot of precipitation here and there are dense fogs. If you are going on an excursion to mountainous areas, bring warm clothes.

All mountains and volcanoes on the island can be characterized by the following parameters:

1. By height
2. On infrastructure development

1. Height

Here we can roughly distinguish three types:

• More than 2,000 meters – 7 peaks
• More than 1,000 meters, but less than 2,000 meters – 22 peaks
• Less than 1,000 meters - the exact number is unknown, since this definition includes small hills and elevations that are difficult to count

All active volcanoes in Bali are over 1,000 meters high; the tallest of them is , its height is 3,142 meters. , which is located in the caldera of the Bratan volcano, is the second highest (2276 meters). Batur ranks only 13th among all peaks, its height is 1717 meters. On the edge of its caldera there is another peak, Abang. It is part of an old large volcano. The height of Abang is 215 2 meters.

2. Infrastructure:

• Absent
  Such peaks are rarely visited by tourists. Their slopes are overgrown with forest, there are almost no paths or they are difficult to climb. On the top or slope there may be small temples or altars, often dilapidated and rarely visited.

• Poorly developed infrastructure
  Most often such mountains are found in the north of the island. Near their foot there are always 1-2 villages, at the top there is a small temple. Sometimes on the slopes you can see rice terraces, coffee plantations, orchards. There are narrow roads and hiking trails, but the entire infrastructure is designed exclusively for local residents.

• Well developed infrastructure
  These are popular peaks among tourists, which are regularly climbed. There are well developed routes here. Near the foot you can find parking lots, cafes, restaurants, and hotels. Local guides offer guiding services. Also included in this category are mountains with large rice terraces and plantations. The infrastructure is also well developed near the large mountain temples, where pilgrims come from all over the island.

Specific characteristics of volcanoes

Almost all the mountains on the island were once volcanoes or formed on the slopes of calderas.

Now there are officially three real volcanoes:

• Bro

There are some characteristics that can be attributed exclusively to volcanoes. All of them belong to the central type. This means that in the middle of the mountain there is a trench about 20 km deep (this is exactly the thickness of the lithospheric plate in this region). The lower part of the volcanic vent reaches the earth's mantle with magma, the upper part ends with an expansion - a crater. Some volcanoes may form additional craters.

Volcanoes can be classified according to the following criteria:

1. By activity
2. By shape
3. By number of craters
4. By type of post-volcanic phenomena

Below are detailed characteristics of volcanoes for each category.

1. By activity

• Active - erupted within the last 3500 years
• Dormant – eruptions occurred between 35,00 and 10,000 years
• Extinct - have not erupted for more than 10,000 years

As I already said, there are two active volcanoes on the island - and Batur. They are located in the province of Kintamani on east coast. The last eruption of Agung was recorded in 1963. Batur has been active three times in the last 100 years - in 1917, 1963 and 2000. The most destructive eruption occurred in 1917. The last activity of the volcano began in 2017. Read more about this in the section Volcano Agung - news.
The third volcano, Bratan, is considered extinct; the date of its last eruption is unknown. Most likely, it was several thousand years ago.

2. According to the form

• Stratovolcanoes
• Calderas

The stratovolcano is formed as a result of periodic eruptions; lava, ash and hot slag are deposited in layers on its slopes. The crater at the stratovolcano resembles a funnel with concave edges. Sometimes lava flows out of side cracks, and after it hardens, specific stone corridors are formed on the volcano.

A caldera is a negative landform. It is formed after multiple volcanic eruptions over a short period. Under its base, voids appear into which part of the earth's surface falls. Often part of the caldera fills with water, forming lakes. Calderas can be seen near the Batur and Bratan volcanoes. Moreover, the Batur caldera is considered one of the largest in the world.

More and more volcanoes are awakening all over to the globe. each time it spews out clouds of smoke and ash more and more powerfully..

Volcano Agung frightens Bali authorities

A volcano erupted on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, causing flights to and from Australia to be canceled after a huge cloud of ash rose into the sky.

The Agung volcano ejects ash and smoke that have shrouded dozens of villages in an impenetrable fog. Lava flows spread over a radius of 2-3 kilometers around the troubled mountain. There were no reports of casualties, but the national disaster management agency established a 2.5-mile exclusion zone around the mountain and said face masks would be distributed to anyone dangerously close to the mountain as a precaution. For this purpose, local officials purchased 50,000 masks.

Bali Airport representative Arie Ahsanurrohim spoke about the cancellation of flights between Bali and Australia, flights to New Zealand will be carried out as scheduled.

Brent Thomas, commercial director of the New Zealand travel company House of Travel, said that tourists should be as collected as possible and carefully observe natural circumstances. “It (the volcano) could go dormant again or it could flare up again, no one knows when that will happen,” Brent Thomas said.

Note that the Agung volcano began to show the first signs of life at the end of 2017. Then the emissions from the bowels of the earth were so powerful that the authorities organized the immediate evacuation of people from dangerous places.

The largest one occurred in 1963, more than 1,000 people became victims, and several villages were destroyed. Agung is just one of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to eruptions and earthquakes due to its location on the "Ring of Fire" - a series of fault lines stretching from the western hemisphere to Japan and southeast Asia.

Volcanoes in Bali are an integral part of the Small Sunda Islands, since they are of volcanic origin. On the small territory of the island there are two active volcanoes: Batur and Agung. Rising above the island, from time immemorial they have evoked awe, fear and admiration among local residents, who revere them as their shrines. Batur and Agung are completely different from each other: each of them has its own history, its own characteristics and legends. So when you come to Bali, it's worth going at least once to see both volcanoes and maybe even climb one of them! So, what are the volcanoes in Bali like, what are they remarkable for and how can you climb them? This is what our article will be about.

Volcanoes in Bali: location, description, photos

Batur

The famous Balinese volcano Batur is located in the northeastern part of the island, and an observation deck overlooking it is included in almost all standard sightseeing tours of the island. The volcano is not very high: only 1717 meters, and even, at first glance, it is unremarkable... But this is not so. In fact, Batur is primarily a caldera (i.e. basin) with a diameter of 13.8 x 10 km, formed about 30 thousand years ago as a result of the eruption of a huge volcano that existed in this place for hundreds of thousands of years. Then another eruption occurred and inside the first caldera a second one appeared, with a diameter of 6.4 x 9.4 km, in which a lake and a volcano of the same name arose (the same one, 1717 m high, which we talked about at the beginning). And last, on the opposite shore of the lake, another “descendant” of the ancient giant was formed - the Abang volcano with a height of 2152 m.

That is, it turns out that the Batur caldera is a huge territory, once occupied by one huge volcano, and now by two small volcanoes and a lake formed as a result of the eruption of the first. This entire area is often called Kintamani, after the name of the region of the island in which it is located. The endless expanses of Batur will open up to you already at observation deck, located on the edge of the caldera: Abang Volcano, Lake Batur (the largest in Bali) and Batur Volcano itself, covered with black spots of frozen lava. This lava is traces of its eruptions, the most destructive of which was in 1917, and the last in 2000.

By the way, the Batur volcano has three craters, which sometimes disturb local residents with tremors and ash emissions. To solve these problems, local residents resort to ceremonies to appease the spirits of the volcano, of which there are a huge number. This place is considered special; it’s not for nothing that 27 temples were built along the perimeter of the caldera: the Balinese believe that Batur unites the spirits of all 4 natural elements: earth, water, air and fire.

Agung

Volcano Agung is located in the east of the island and is its highest point - 3014 m. Its history is not as eventful as that of Batur. A total of 4 eruptions were recorded during observations, the last of which occurred in 1963-1964. It was also the most destructive: the eruption claimed the lives of about 2,000 people and left tens of thousands of islanders homeless. Before it, the height of Agung was 3142 m, but as a result of large-scale destruction, a piece broke off from the top and the volcano became more than 100 m lower.

If we compare the volcanoes in Bali, Agung is the largest of them, which on a clear day can be seen from almost everywhere. Its name translates as " great mountain": according to , this is sacred place, where the gods and spirits of ancestors live. All villages, courtyards and temples of Bali are oriented towards the sacred mountain. So, for example, if in the north of the island the temples are located in the southern part of the courtyard, then in the south - in the northern. It is on the slope of Agung, at an altitude of 1000 m above sea level, that the main and largest temple complex islands - Pura Besakih, consisting of 30 temples located on several levels. Balinese from all over the island make a pilgrimage here: to the temple that is closest to the gods.

The Balinese worldview is characterized by the absolute completeness of the picture of the world, because the island is his whole world, and if demons live in the ocean, people live on the earth, then the habitat of the gods is a formidable mountain, which makes itself felt when the gods are angry. This is how the volcanic eruption in 1963 was perceived, which coincided with the sacred rite of spiritual purification - a great holiday held in Pura Besakih once every hundred years. The Balinese believe that this happened because the gods were angry that the wrong day had been chosen for the ceremony. True, in some miraculous way, the temple itself was not affected by the destruction... Since then, the volcano has no longer worried the local residents, however, the Balinese know that the gods do not sleep, and the sacred mountain does not sleep with them.

Climbing volcanoes in Bali

If you don't already know, you can climb the volcanoes in Bali and watch the sunrise above the clouds, this activity is very popular among tourists. After all, from the top there is a fabulous view of the awakening island, and besides, who wouldn’t want to conquer a volcano and look into its crater? Usually the ascent occurs at night. Firstly, because it is easier: you don’t have to walk under the scorching sun; and secondly, dawn is an incredibly beautiful time of day, especially if you watch it from such a height.

As a rule, the climb to Batur begins at 4 a.m. and lasts about 2 hours. Climbing Agung is a real challenge, which will take from 4 to 9 hours. There are several routes leading to the top of the main volcano of the island: a shorter one and a longer one. The first one starts from the village of Selat in the south and takes about 4 hours. It will take you to the crater, but it will not be possible to reach the very high point volcano The longer route starts from Besakih Temple and will take at least 7 hours. This is the path along which pilgrims climb Agung, and it is the one that leads to the very top. If you choose it, then you need to start climbing no later than 10 pm, or even earlier, in order to spend the night halfway and continue the climb with new strength. Having climbed Batur or Agung, do not think that you have overcome the longest and most difficult part of the route... The descent will be no less exciting and, most likely, will take even longer. Don't let that put you off though, what you see at the top will definitely be worth all the effort!

You can see the volcanoes in Bali from excursion group, and independently. If you choose the second method, do not refuse the services of local guides who will attack you already in the parking lot. It's better to pay them and be sure that you won't get lost at night and won't be late for dawn. Also find out in advance if groups are currently running. During the rainy season, for example, ascents are extremely undesirable. And, of course, stock up on warm clothes (it will be very cold when you go up), comfortable shoes, flashlights, food, water and go on an adventure!

Perhaps volcanoes in Bali are an inexhaustible topic. Ask your Balinese guide and he will tell you many legends and beliefs associated with them. Yes, you yourself will understand why they have such a strong influence on the worldview of local residents, once you find yourself next to them and feel their power. And if you have the desire and time, be sure to climb Batur or Agung: you will see the island from a bird's eye view, and also get unforgettable experience for life!

And finally, a short video about climbing Mount Agung Volcano: