Mount Batur Eruption Dates
Updated: Apr 23
Is Mount Batur due, or even overdue to let off more than just steam? With so many industries and people within those industries relying on the Mount Batur volcano for an income including farmers, shop owners, the fishing industry, the sand miners, the federal government for all the taxes and fees they collect from tourism operators including ourselves that are also reliant on the volcano for an income, we thought we had best check this out from a business stand point. After doing the sums in our simple case study that follows, we decided to diversify into waterfall tours as well. See why below.
Mount Batur has one of the most awe inspiring calderas on the planet. It's nearly 14 km's across x 10 kilometres across and houses Lake Batur (probably responsible for keeping the Mount Batur at least partially cooled) Mount Batur is said to be 1717 meters above sea level. Our measurements have it at less than this amount and closer to 1720 meters above sea level, however, we are only using an app on our phones. Many tourists have reported the same thing. That said... "1717" is literally carved in stone near the top of the mountain. It makes sense for the volcano to be dropping though. All that ash and lava over the years has to come from somewhere right?
In September 2012 UNESCO granted the area World Heritage listing status because of its "Cultural Significance & Natural Scenery" It's widely believed that the first eruption happened around 27,300 BCE (give or take a few years) and is known as a "stratovolcano" type
The Balinese have a belief that loosely translates to something like the Chinese Yin & Yang. If you take from the mountain, at some stage it will want payment. Along those lines anyway. I'll probably need to get clarification of this at a later date. Anyway, here are the dates we have managed to put together over the years for our guides to be as accurate as possible when doing tours:
Year | Since Last Eruption | What Happened |
1804 | First recorded eruption | There was an eruption from the main crater. |
1821 | 17 Years | There was an eruption from the main crater. |
1849 | 28 Years | Eruption with lava flow to the lake. |
1854 | 6 Years | |
1888 | 34 Years | There was a fissure eruption on the southeastern slope, lava flowing southeastward to the lake. |
1897 | 9 Year | There was an eruption from the main crater |
1904 | 7 Years | Parasitic eruptions to the west |
1905 | 1 Year | Eruptions from the Batur I, Batur II and Batur III craters. The lava flows south, and southwest. |
1921 | 16 Years | The eruption began on January 29th and ended on April 17th, the lava flows to the southwest and south. |
1922 | 1 Year | August 30, there was an eruption from the main crater. |
1923 | 1 Year | Increased activity for 2 days. |
1924 | 1 Year | The ash eruption occurred in March. |
1925 | 1 Year | Early January there was an eruption of ash, followed by incandescent lava for one day. |
1926 | 20 Months | The eruption began August 2nd and ended September 21st. This eruption of Mount Batur released Lava that covered the Batur Village. There were no casualties. |
1963 | 37 Years | The eruption began on September 5th and ended on May 10th 1964, with lava eruptions. |
1965 | 15 months | On August 18th there was an eruption of ash. |
1966 | 8 Months | On April 28th there was an eruption of ash. |
1968 | 21 Months | The eruption began on January 23rd and ended on February 15th, lava flowing south. |
1970 | 23 Months | At the end of January there was an eruption of very thin ash reaching Kintamani. |
1971 | 14 Months | Starting March 11th there was an eruption of ash, the eruption lasted until May. |
1974 | 34 Months |