PUSUK BUHIT, THE GOVERMENT'S WATCHED MOUNTAIN

Around 70,000 years ago, a volcano ‘Megaletusan’ shook the Earth. The eruption was believed to be the largest in the period of 2 million last year.

As the site loaded the U.S. space agency, NASA, in about two weeks, thousands of cubic miles of debris spewed from the Toba caldera in northern Sumatra. Pyroclastic flows – clouds that are a mixture of hot gas, rock fragments and ash – buried the region about 20,000 square kilometers around the caldera.

On the island of Samosir, a thick layer of ash even reach 600 meters. Toba ash also spread throughout the world. In India for instance, the thickness of gray ash up to 6 meters. Post-eruption, Mount Toba collapsed, leaving the modern caldera filled with water – into the Lake Toba. Meanwhile, Samosir Island lifted by the magma under the ground which does not erupt. Mount Pusuk Buhit near the lake were also formed after the eruption.

Now, seeing that meets the lush tropical venetasi these areas, it is difficult to imagine the impact of volcanic eruptions that destroy anything, including human populations. In fact, at that time, very few creatures to survive in large part in Indonesia. The eruption of Toba menyababkan ‘volcanic winter’ for many years, causing global cooling, and resulted in enormous consequences for life on the whole world.

Toba Caldera photos taken by instrumenAdvanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is mounted on NASA’s Terra satellite on January 28, 2006. Images from two angles put together to describe the whole area. Now Mount Pusuk Buhit in Toba became one of the three mountains that the government strictly monitored. The other two are Mount Tambora and ‘Anak Krakatau’.

How the results of monitoring while? “Until now, if the alert status of Anak Krakatau, was erupting. The others in the normal condition,” said Head of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), when contacted VIVAnews Surono, Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Pusuk Buhit left no record of eruption since 1400. Aktifivas Pusuk Buhit are now much more out of hot water.