SOME OTHER NOTED VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS
Since the limits of our book will prevent any further description
of volcanic districts or regions, we must content ourselves with
descriptions of some of the noted of the remaining volcanoes, although
many we will thus omit contain great wonders.
As we have already seen from the description of Krakatoa, the island
of Java near which Krakatoa is situated is especially noted not only
for the great number of its volcanic mountains, but also for the
frequency and severity of their eruptions.
Perhaps the most destructive eruption of any of the volcanic mountains
of Java was of a volcanic mountain called Papandayang. This volcano,
situated on the southern coast of the island, is 7,034 feet in
height, and was in eruption in 1772. According to Scrope, from whom
the details of this eruption have been obtained, two others of the
many volcanoes on Java, situated at 184 and 352 geographical miles
respectively from Papandayang, broke out at the same time into active
eruption, although several intervening cones were undisturbed.
The eruption of Papandayang was of the explosive type, a large part
of the mountain being broken off by the great force of the eruption,
and its materials scattered far and wide over the surrounding country.
During this eruption forty villages with their inhabitants were
buried by great showers of ashes. An area of fifteen by six miles was
left in the shape of a huge pit by the great eruption. It was at
first believed by some that this pit was due to the actual sinking
in of the ground, but a more careful study has shown that it was in
reality caused by the great force of the eruption, being, in point
of fact, a vast explosive crater that was formed by the expulsion of
the materials that formerly filled it. Some idea of the great extent
of this eruption of Papandayang may be had by the size of this huge
crater that was six by fifteen miles in diameter.
Another great volcanic mountain in Java that had a terrific eruption
was Galungoon, or Galung Gung. According to Lyell, from whom the facts
of this eruption have been obtained, prior to this eruption the slopes
of the mountain were highly cultivated and densely populated. There
was a circular pit or crater on the summit of the mountain, but there
had been no traditions of any eruptions prior to 1822.
In July, 1822, the waters of the Kunir River, one of the small rivers
that flow down the slopes of the mountain, were observed to become
hot and turbid. On the 8th of October, 1822, a terrific explosion was
suddenly heard, accompanied by great earthquake shocks, when immense
columns of hot water and boiling mud, mixed with burning brimstone,
ashes, and lapilli, were thrown violently like a great waterspout from
the opening in the mountain, with such enormous violence that great
quantities fell across the River Tandoi, forty miles distant, while
the valleys in the neighborhood were filled with a burning torrent.
The rivers overflowed their banks and produced great destruction by
floods of burning and boiling materials that washed away all the
villages and cultivated fields in their path. During this eruption an
extended area was covered with boiling mud in which were completely
buried the bodies of many of those who perished.
So great was the violence with which the boiling mud, cinders, etc.,
were thrown out of the mountain that they entirely failed to fall on
many of the villages in the immediate neighborhood, while the more
remote villages were completely destroyed and buried out of sight
under the mud.
The first eruption continued for nearly five hours. During several
days following the eruption, torrents of rain fell, which produced
floods in the rivers that covered the country far and wide with thick
layers of mud.
Four days after the great eruption, that is, on the 12th of October,
1822, a second and still more violent eruption occurred, when immense
quantities of hot mud were again thrown out of the crater. Great
blocks of hardened lava called basalt were thrown a distance of seven
miles from the volcano. This eruption was accompanied by a violent
earthquake. It was during this eruption that a huge piece of the side
of the cone was blown out, not unlike the case of the Val del Bove on
Mt. Etna. The surrounding country was covered with mud. The immense
quantity of materials thus thrown out of the side of the mountain
produced changes in the courses of several rivers, thus causing great
floods which in the single night of October 12th drowned 2,000 people.
During these eruptions there were 114 villages destroyed, with a total
loss of life of about 4,000.
There is a volcanic mountain on the island of Sumbawa that is noted
for the very destructive eruption that occurred on it in April, 1815.
If you examine the map of the Sunda Islands chain, you will see that
the island of Sumbawa lies immediately east of a little island called
Lombock, about 200 miles east of Java.
This eruption of Sumbawa was of the most frightful violence, and,
indeed, with the exception of Krakatoa and Pelée, was one of the
greatest eruptions in historic times.
Like all great eruptions, that of Sumbawa gave plenty of signs of
its coming. During April, 1814, the volcano manifested considerable
increase in its activity, and ashes fell on the decks of vessels
sailing past the island.
The eruption began on April 5th, 1815, but reached its greatest
violence on the 11th and 12th of April. According to Lyell, the sound
of the explosion was heard at the island of Sumatra at a distance of
970 geographical miles towards the west, and in the opposite direction
it was heard for a distance of 720 miles. The destruction of life was
terrible. Out of a population of 12,000 in the province of Tomboro,
only twenty-six people escaped with their lives.
Like many other great eruptions the shooting upwards of the great
column of matter from the crater produced a violent whirlwind that
carried people, horses, cattle, and almost every movable object high
into the air, and tore up huge trees by their roots.
Immense quantities of ashes fell over the surrounding country, or were
carried towards Java to the west a distance of 300 miles, while on the
north they were carried towards Celebes for a distance of 217 miles.
Cinders covered the ocean towards the west two feet thick and several
miles in length, so that ships could hardly make their way through
them.
The darkness in Java produced by the dense ash cloud was greater than
had ever before been experienced with the single exception of the
great eruption of Krakatoa. A considerable quantity of this volcanic
dust was carried to the islands of Amboyna and Banda, the last named
island being at a distance of 800 miles east of the volcano.
This eruption of Sumbawa was attended by great lava streams that
covered vast areas of the land and afterwards poured into the sea.
As in the case of the explosive eruption of Krakatoa great waves were
produced in the ocean all along the coasts of Sumbawa, and surrounding
islands. The sea suddenly rose from two to twelve feet. A great wave
rushed up the mouths of the rivers, and at the town of Tomboro, on
the west side of Sumbawa, an area of land was sunk in the waters and
remained permanently covered by eighteen feet of water.
The most important of the still active volcanoes of Japan is
Assamayna. This mountain was in terrible eruption during the autumn of
1783, when dense showers of ashes thrown out of the crater darkened
the sky, turning the day into night, and, falling on the cultivated
fields around the mountain, changed them into deserts. During the
eruption some forty-eight villages were destroyed by showers of ashes
and red hot stones and thousands of the inhabitants were either killed
directly by the stones and ashes, or died from starvation, since their
fields were covered with ashes for miles around to a depth of from two
and a half to five feet.
Another terrible eruption in Japan was in the volcanic mountain of
Wunzen, or Onzen-Gatake. This occurred during 1791-93. During the last
eruption of this volcano, 53,000 people lost their lives, either by
reason of the eruption of the volcano, or by huge waves set up in the
ocean by an earthquake.