home

photos

travel

volcanoes

Papandayan Volcano Photos


Volcanoes of Java: Papandayan volcano (in August 2004)

A strong eruption in 2001 transformed much the caldera of Papandayan into a moon-like landscape. Deposits of block and ash flows cover the ground and are deeply cut by erosion from rainwater.
Once a forest, only some burned trunks stripped off their branches remain in the ground, others are broken. In some cases, even large trees were unrooted by the force of the pyroclastic flows passing over them.
Life returns. Some roots of the trees survived the eruption. An acid steaming lake occupies the recently active crater. A violently steaming fumarole, producing a steam plume several 100m high, in the crater wall near the eruption site.

Fumaroles and sulphur deposits

Many strong fumaroles are spread across the caldera.

Stinking colorful rivers and a boiling mud pool

Small rivers and ponds of red and blue-colored, stinking water are present everywhere.
The charred vegetation buried by the deposits of the 2001 eruption. A small pond with foul water.

A circular pond containing boiling black mud.

 
Close-up of the mud pond's surface.  
Block- and ash-covered ground.

Dry mud.

River and dead trees.