• Question: Have you ever studied the Krakatau volcano in Indonesia?

    Asked by Grace to Kate on 19 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      No….. Not yet.

      I have friends who have though, Krakatoa and many other indonesion volcanoes are very explosive becasue they are asociated with subducting plates. The downgoing plates cary extra fluids that are released into the “mantle wedge” between the downgoing and overriding plate, meaning magmas with lots of gas in them. This makes them very thick (viscous) and very explosive. In some Indoneisan volcanoes the rocks the magam rises through are carbonates (chalk, limestone) and as the gas-rich magma moves towards the surface it can also get more gasses added by dissolving some of the carbonate and increasing the Co2 content.

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