A Mw 6.1 earthquake on 25 February 2022, at around 8:39 a.m. local time, struck Pasaman Barat Regency, West Sumatra, Indonesia, and was felt in Singapore and Malaysia. The hypocenter of this earthquake was 12 km deep and preceded by an Mw 4.9 foreshock a few minutes earlier. The earthquakes originated on a blind fault and triggered a landslide at Mount Talamau. Herein, the slip distribution and asperities along the plane fault during the earthquake were examined by teleseismic inversion and the fault location was identified by Global Gravity Model plus (GGMPlus) satellite gravity data. The slip distribution was calculated from the source parameters (strike: 136°; dip: 70°; rake: 174°) by inversion techniques based on teleseismic data. Based on the slip distribution, the earthquake was generated by stress from the Sianok fault that spread to the north and reached the uncertain fault segment in the Talamau area. In addition, the results of the First Horizontal Derivative and Second Vertical Derivative from the GGMplus data revealed a straight Simple Bouguer Anomaly pattern, confirming the existence of the uncertain Talamau fault as part of the Great Sumatra Fault. This work shows the potential application of the combination of teleseismic and gravity observation for delineating the fault structure that caused the 2022 Mw 6.1 Pasaman earthquake, which can also be applied to other locations of similar geological backgrounds.

Spatial approaches, based on the deformation measurement of volcanic domes and crater rims, is key in evaluating the activity of a volcano, such as Merapi Volcano, where associated disaster risk regularly takes lives. Within this framework, this study aims to detect localized topographic change in the summit area that has occurred concomitantly with the dome growth and explosion reported. The methodology was focused on two sets of data, one LiDAR-based dataset from 2012 and one UAV dataset from 2014. The results show that during the period 2012–2014, the crater walls were 100–120 m above the crater floor at its maximum (from the north to the east–southeast sector), while the west and north sectors present a topographic range of 40–80 m. During the period 2012–2014, the evolution of the crater rim around the dome was generally stable (no large collapse). The opening of a new vent on the surface of the dome has displaced an equivalent volume of 2.04 × 10⁴ m³, corresponding to a maximum −9 m (+/−0.9 m) vertically. The exploded material has partly fallen within the crater, increasing the accumulated loose material while leaving “hollows” where the vents are located, although the potential presence of debris inside these vents made it difficult to determine the exact size of these openings. Despite a measure of the error from the two DEMs, adding a previously published dataset shows further discrepancies, suggesting that there is also a technical need to develop point-cloud technologies for active volcanic craters.

Spatial approach based on the deformation measurement of volcanic dome and crater rim is key to evaluate the activity of a volcano, such as Merapi volcano where associated disaster risk is regularly taking lives. Within this framework, this study aime to detect localized deformation and change in the summit area that has occurred concomitantly with the dome growth and explosion reported. The methodology was focused on two sets of data, one LiDAR-based dataset of 2012 and one UAV-dataset of 2014. The results show that during the period 2012-2014, the crater walls are 100 m to 120 m high above the crater floor at its maximum (North to East-South-East sector), while the West and North sector presents a topographic range of 40 to 80 m. During the period 2012 – 2014, the evolution of the crater rim around the dome is generally stable (no large collapse). The opening of a new vent on the surface of the dome has displaced an equivalent volume of 2.04 E+04 m3 corresponding to a maximum -9 m (+/- 0.9 m) vertically. This concludes that during the period 2012 – 2014 when the dome of Merapi experienced phreatic or phreatomagmatic explosions, the topography around the dome rose. This rise does not seem to be related to large wall collapses, and it is likely that modification in the subsurface have triggered those changes.

This is the first study discussing the dynamics of two caldera-forming eruptions in the Banda volcanic complex (BVC) in the marine conservation zone of Banda, Maluku, Indonesia. The first and second caldera episodes are, hereafter, termed as Banda Besar and Naira, respectively. The formation of Banda Besar caldera (ca. 8 × 7 km) ejected homogeneous rhyolitic magmas (bulk-rock, 73.1–73.8 wt.% SiO₂) in the following three stages: (1) sub-Plinian (BB-5a), (2) intra-sub-Plinian flow (BB-5b), and (3) caldera collapse (BB-5c and BB-5d). The BB-5a stage produced a reversely graded white pumice fall layer with moderate lithics (2–11%), which originated from a sub-Plinian eruption with an estimated plume height of 22–23 km. Subsequently, intensive erosion of wall rock (13–25%) causes conduit enlargement, leading to the partial collapse of the eruption columns, forming intra-sub-Plinian flow deposits (BB-5b). It is likely that conduit size surpassed the minimum threshold value for a buoyant plume during the final phase of the second stage, causing the complete formation of a pumice-rich pyroclastic density current (PDC) during the early-third stage (BB-5c). Finally, the evacuation of voluminous magma from the reservoir yields the first caldera collapse during the late-third stage, producing a lithic-dominated PDC with minor pumices (BB-5d). The formation of the Naira caldera (ca. 3 × 3 km) ejected homogeneous dacitic magmas (bulk-rock, 66.2–67.2 wt.% SiO₂) in the following three stages: (1) early sub-Plinian (N-2a and 2b), (2) late sub-Plinian (N-2c, 2d, 2e), and (3) caldera collapse (N-2f). This research distinguishes the sub-Plinian into two stages on the basis of different vent locations (assumed from the isopach map). In particular, this research suggests that the early sub-Plinian stage (N-2a and 2b) erupted from the northern vent, producing 14 and 8 km eruption plume heights, respectively. Additionally, the late sub-Plinian stage (N-2c, 2d, 2e) was generated from a newly-formed conduit located in the relatively southern position, producing 12–17, 9, and 6 km eruption plume heights, respectively. Conduit enlargement is expected to occur during at both sub-Plinian stages, as lithic portions are considerably high (10–72%) and ultimately generate PDCs during the third stage (caldera collapse; N-2f). Because most of the erupted materials (for both caldera-forming eruptions) are emplaced in the ocean, estimating the erupted volume becomes difficult. However, with the assumption that the caldera dimension represents the erupted volume of magma (V_magma), and that the total erupted volume (V_total) is a summation of V_magma and the now-vanished pre-caldera island (V_vanished, represented by average lithic fractions), the first and second caldera might produce (at least) 35.2 and 2.4 km³ of erupted materials, scaling them as VEI (volcano explosivity index) 6 and 5, respectively. That VEI is more than enough to initiate a secondary hazard in the form of tsunamis triggered by volcanic activities.

In this study, we combined the results of petrography [pheno-crystallinity (\({{\phi }_{{PC}}}\))] and magma compositions (bulk and melt compositions) to calculate the magma viscosity (\({{{{\mu }}}_{{{\text{eff}}}}}\)) of the lava flows and domes that erupted from Mount Ungaran, Central Java, Indonesia. The lava flows were characterized by slightly larger SiO₂ variations than those of lava domes, with a large overlap between each phase (46.7–57.8 and 53.2–59.8 wt % SiO₂, respectively). However, lava flows were typically less crystalline than the lava domes (average \({{\phi }_{{PC}}}\) of 33 and 40%, respectively). Because lava flows share an identical composition to lava domes and temperature is inversely proportional to SiO₂ content, it is inferred that magma composition and temperature did not play a substantial role in controlling magma viscosity. Instead, we found that pheno-crystallinity was the most important parameter. Specially, for a ±7% difference of pheno-crystallinity (at a given SiO₂), magma viscosity could differ by one order of magnitude, ultimately controlling lava morphology: high-viscosity magma (5.6–7.8 log Pa s) formed lava domes, whereas low-viscosity magma (4.6–6.6 log Pa s) produced lava flow. Moreover, we found that lava dome samples exhibited gentler phenocryst size distribution (CSD) slopes than lava flow samples (2.1–3.4 and 2.7–6.9, respectively). Because the CSD slope was inversely proportional to the magma residence time (CSD slope = –1/Gt), we suggest that lava dome formation, which requires a high magma viscosity, originates from a longer-lived and more crystalline magma, whereas lava flow with low magma viscosity originates from a young and less crystalline magma. Thus, in the case of mafic-to-intermediate magma, as in the present case, we think that the resultant lava morphology is strongly controlled by the abundance of phenocrysts and magma residence time.

The Youngest (74 ka) Toba Tuff (YTT) super-eruption is traditionally interpreted as a single, short-lived event. However, new paleomagnetic data from both southern and northern non-welded exposures of YTT’s Units 2, 3, and 4 (in ascending order) challenge this model. Unit 2 samples were obtained from a thin ash layer sandwiched between two ignimbrites at two localities on the northern and southern sides of the caldera, whereas samples from Units 3 and 4 were collected from ignimbrites at one locality each on the southern side of the caldera. Mineral chemistry of matrix-glass and biotite from thin ash layers in both northern and southern deposits shows compositions consistent with YTT. Mean characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) directions from Units 3 and 4 are indistinguishable and consistent with those of the welded YTT. Mean ChRM directions of Unit 2 from two different localities are indistinguishable and exhibit a statistically distinct paleomagnetic direction from those of Units 3 and 4. Using a secular variation rate of 0.02 degrees/year, the estimated minimum time gap between Units 2 and 3–4 is ~ 807 ± 193 years. Temporal gaps recorded in non-welded proximal deposits are consistent with recent interpretations from distal marine tephra, suggesting that the YTT eruption was episodic and may have spanned several hundred to thousands of years. Graphical Abstract