Satonda island is a flooded volcano island that lies just north of Mt. Tambora in West Nusa Tenggara. It can be reached by boat from Samawa Seaside Cottages in one hour. The lake inside the mountain ring is made up of salt water, not fresh. The widely-held belief is that when Tambora erupted, a massive wave washed over the edge of Satonda’s crater rim, filling it with water. A second popular story is that the trees lining the edge of the lake have the power to grant wishes. You must tie a rock to one of the trees and make a wish. If the wish then comes true it is your duty to return to the island and give thanks.
Two European scientists , Stephan Kempe and Josef Kazmierczak , pioneering research at the lake . They first visited the lake when the Dutch Indonesian Satonda Snell II Expedition in November 1984 , and then returned to research in 1989 and 1996 .
For both, Satonda is a rare phenomenon because of the salty water with alkalinity ( alkalinity level ) is very high compared with sea water generally . They then try to reconstruct the history of the formation of the lake and its ecosystem .
Kempe and Kazmierczak pour some of the results of their research in an article titled Microbialites and Hydrochemistry of the Crater Lake of Satonda , 1996 . Both argue , Satonda basin coincided with the formation of a crater more than 10,000 years ago .
Originally , it contained a freshwater lake , which is evidenced from peat deposits beneath the sea minerals in sediments resemble the edge of the lake . The lake was then flooded with sea water that seeps through the cracks of the crater wall collapsed . At that time , sea levels 1 meter – 1 , 5 meters higher than today.
However , sea level is slowly shrinking . Screening of sea water through the walls of the crater was slowed . Now , the water level of the lake is relatively stable , which marks no longer relationship with the sea water .
The presence of stromatolites in Satonda be very interesting because it shows these lakes have an environment that resembles an ancient ocean , Precambrian . Stromatolites in the modern world only found in water with very high salinity . Satonda for scientists to be a model that reflects the contemporary environmental conditions in ancient oceans .
During its development , Kempe and Kazmierczak wrote , rain makes the water surface of the lake becomes more bargaining . Another suggestion which leads to reduced salinity surface water of the lake is the eruption of Tambora in 1815 .
Tambora eruption has destroyed forests in Satonda . The lack of trees leads to reduced evaporation , too much rain water collected in the crater . It causes the upper layers of water become more fresh . At the same time , some of the water that is older and more depressed salted down or out of the lake through the pores of volcanic rocks open .
Hiking Mount Tambora
Mount Tambora ( or Tomboro ) is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Sumbawa , Indonesia . The mountain is located in two districts , namely Dompu ( most of the south side of the feet to the northwest, and the Bima district ( south side of the slope to the northwest, and the feet to the east side of the peak to the north ) , West Nusa Tenggara Province , on 8 ° 15 ‘latitude and 118 ° east .
Altitude Tambora to 4300 m which makes this mountain was once one of the highest peak in Indonesia and there is a large magma chamber inside the mountain . century takes time to replenish the magma chamber .
This volcano volcanic activity peaked in April 1815 when it erupted in a scale of seven on the Volcanic explosivity index . The eruption became the biggest eruption since the Lake Taupo eruption in 181 years . The explosion was heard up to Sumatra island (more of 2,000 km).
Volcanic ash fell in Kalimantan , Sulawesi , Java and Maluku . The explosion was caused by the death of no less than 71,000 people with whom 11,000-12,000 were killed directly as a result of the eruption . In fact, some researchers estimate that up to 92,000 people were killed , but this number is doubtful because based on estimates that are too high . [ 5 ] Moreover, these volcanic eruptions caused global climate change .
The following year ( 1816 ) is often referred to as the Year Without a Summer because the weather changes drastically from North America and Europe due to dust generated from this Tambora eruption . As a result of drastic climate change , many crops failed and livestock died in the Northern Hemisphere that caused the worst famine in the 19th century .
During the archaeological excavations of 2004 , a team of archaeologists found the remains buried by the eruption of culture in 1815 at a depth of 3 meters in pyroclastic deposits . [ 6 ] The artifacts found in the same position when the eruption occurred in 1815 . Due to the characteristics of similar this , the findings are often referred to as the Pompeii of the east'
SAMAWA SEASIDE COTTAGES Located in tanjung menangis, sumbawa Besar - West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
