Mount Marapi

Mount Marapi, an active volcano located in the Padang Highlands of western Sumatra, Indonesia. The mountain is part of the Ring of Fire—a long, horseshoe-shaped, seismically active belt that rings the Pacific Ocean. The highest peak among several volcanoes in the highlands, Mount Marapi rises to 9,485 feet (2,891 meters) above sea level. Its summit contains the Bancah caldera—which has a diameter of 0.9 mile (1.4 km)—and is characterized by a series of overlapping craters. Mount Marapi is often confused with a similar active volcano called Mount Merapi, which is located near the center of the island of Java, Indonesia.

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Mount Marapi’s recorded eruptive history extends back to 1770, with the periods 1910–30 and 1999–2023 being the most active. The volcano has erupted 11 times during the early 21st century, including one eruption that claimed the lives of approximately two dozen people in December 2023. The volcano’s deadliest single event, which resulted in the deaths of 60 people, came in 1979 after heavy rains saturated a a region of loose ash (called a lahar) on the slopes that was left over from an earlier eruption.