Mount Kerinci (also spelled Kerintji, among several other ways, and referred to as Gunung Kerinci, Gadang, Berapi Kurinci, Kerinchi, Korinci, or Peak of Indrapura as well) is the highest volcano in Indonesia, and the highest peak in Sumatra. It is located in the west central part of the island, in the Pegunungan/Bukit Barisan, near the west coast, and is about 130 km (80 mi) south of Padang. It is the most prominent feature of the terrain of Kerinci Seblat National Park, with pine-forested slopes rising 2,400-3,300 metres above the surrounding basin, and a cone 13 km wide and 25 km long at the base, elongated in the north-south direction. At the summit there is a deep 600-m wide crater, often partially filled with green-yellow water.
Kerinci is more active than most Indonesian volcanoes, with nearly annual phreatic eruptions. Kerinci last erupted in 2004, and continues to spew clouds of sulphurous smoke, with plumes reaching as high as 1000 m above the summit. While there is farmland in the area, and a tea plantation on its southern slope, Kerinci, being located in an Indonesian national park, and perhaps out of respect for its frequent growlings as well, sits in an area that is sparsely populated by Indonesian population-density standards.
View on the Kerinci volcano in 1998.
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