Mount Tambora to be a National Park

Tempo.co, Saturday, 19 October, 2013


TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A team consisting personnel of the Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Energy and Mineral resources, and West Nusa Tenggara Natural (NTB) Resources Conservation Station will survey Mount Tambora's potential as a national park. The survey will start on October 19.

The national park is expected to be inaugurated on the commemoration of Mount Tambora's two-century old eruption on April 2015. "The chance of its utilization will increase. As a geotourism for example," said the Functional Chief Engineer of Geological Museum of the Ministry of energy, Heryadi Rachmat to Tempo on Friday, Ocotber 18.

Mount Tambora's status is currently a natural conservation having 23,840.81 hectare (ha) large area;  21,674.68 ha large wildlife conservation area; and 26.130,25 ha large hunting area.

According to Heryadi, Mount Tambora has beautiful sceneries and attractive eruption history. "There are hot springs, fresh water river, small lake and a new dome," he said.

Tambora's eruption in 1815 is the greatest volcano eruption in the world. It is ten times of Krakatau's eruption. The eruption formed 100 kilometers square caldera, 43 kilometers haze and generates 400 million cubic sulphur gases which had prevented sunlight to come through. The eruption killed 117,000 lives of  Tambora Kingdom residents, including residents of Pekat, Sanggar, and surrounding regencies of Dompu and Bima.



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