River of my childhood

Sunday is the opportunity I have 1 week holiday and to visit my home. The village in the Wilis mount slopes with cool air, I felt like returning to my first little period, each day playing in the rice field terracing, playing kites continue to bathe in the river is clear with the black stones are large.

Wilis mount has a height of 2552 meters, and the peak is located on the border between the six districts in Kediri, Tulungagung, Nganjuk, Madiun, Ponorogo, and Trenggalek. Tourism Wilis Mount is the most waterfalls, but it has not been developed so far. (source from wikipedia)

After visiting my parents house was extended to see the river that is full of memories. I also remote, about 1 km from the house. When I was still small, a short distance away because we walked with friends. My motorcycle parking at the bridge then go down the river canyon.


But I am disappointed, because the feeling of beauty and clarity of the river have been lost. Water flow, which was always clear and is now clouded by dirty plastics. Previously we often sit on the stone in the river while the shrimp occasionally notice ran behind the stone. The stones size as big as a truck . Now the stones are full of moss and waste involved. It's sad to see the fact almost 20 years passed and everything changed. Not improved but even worsened.

Then I ride back to the bridge and the beautiful memories to try to forget it. After taking some photos I go to another place where I had through my childhood, to the rice field while enjoying the beautiful Wilis mount from afar.

Sitting over a motorcycle while feeling the wind blowing, it feels very peaceful and beautiful.

However there's a sense that in the past often appear in mind when bathing in the river, the stones of the car can be located in the river, where it came from? Now I have the answer.

There are two possible origin of the stones:

1. They are the result of lahar flow eruption of Wilis Mount, which is consistent character lahar flows can flow up to tens of kilometers down the slope and the downstream river. That means that the Wilis mount somewhere years is how active the volcano never erupt.
2. on the Wilis mount slopes had occurred a large-scale soil erosion and landslide material including stones large flow saturated by water due to rain and into the flow of debris.

Both the above possibilities can be received. In the first alternative, Wilis Mount are classified as sleep and evidence of magma activity is still seen as the source of hot water, hot gas discharge from the bottom of Ngebel Lake (in Wilis mountain slopes) at the time that killed the fish in it.
Because there is still magma activity then it is likely sometime Wilis mountain could erupt again if the magma activity increased. Conditions have occurred on Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

While the second alternative is true when certain landslides occurred in a very large scale so that material can flow up to nearly 30 km from Mount Wilis to my village, and below it.

But the documents and the data is not never know. What is there or not.

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Indonesia- mega mall of natural disasters

In this world that has a largest risk of natural disasters is Asia, It said the mall of disaster, while Indonesia is the mega mall of disaster. Extraordinary .....!!!

Why be so extreme as a mega mall disaster?
Of course that we follow are described in the Indonesian archipelago that is confluence of three tectonic plates that make up the earth's crust is Asia plates (not moving), Indo-Australian plates are moving to the north and the Pacific plates, also shifted to the north and northwest.


From the confluence plates would happen Indo-Australia plates subduction to the bottom of the plates along the coast of Asia, namely the Indian Ocean from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku. And from subduction will happen to friction plates. Reaction friction is tectonic earthquake occurrence and the formation of magma under the earth's crust that cause the emergence of many islands along the volcano-island.

Yes ... sure, this is the little global we need to realize that while many symptoms of other nature that may be highly fatal, the result of human activity always do damage and we never compromise with nature.

If the earthquake and the mountains erupt tectonic pure natural phenomenon as the result of human activity then there were landslides, floods, forest fires, fire villages / market, bombardment, collapse of building / dam, and many more.

During the events of the above does not cause the victim lives and the material loss is considered a normal phenomenon of nature, rather then if it is indeed a disaster.
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Figure 2: dots of tectonic earthquake on the world, there is a visible location of the earthquake tectonic plates sides and Indonesia are in the intersection three tectonic plates (source: Mac Graw-Hill Companies Inc - MPBA lecture material)

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Pyroclastic

Pyroclastic is lava material that came out of magma kitchen, formed a lava dome at the peak of the volcano and then collapse in form of stone and sand blocks and was followed by glowing dust vulcanic as heat cloud.
Based on the activities, Pyroclastic consists of 2 types, namely:

1. The flow of pyroclastic material from the slide down the slope lava dome. Material under the form of blocks of lava rock and large and small to form a cloud above the summer. Flow occurs because the high pressure gas. (a typical phenomenon Mount Merapi, Central Java, often called by the name wedus gembel).
2.Lava dome is directly released into the air due to volcano eruption. This activity is closed in the sky around the explosion and the falling material can cause tremendous damage to tens of miles to reach the distance. When the hot material falling to the sea in large numbers can lead to the occurrence of pairs of even tsunami waves.

#The picture taked from here
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Mass movement and Landslide

Mass movement is a movement of soil / rock of slopes composer downhill slope stability due to the disturbance gradient.

Landslide is the mass movement through the field sliding on slopes. Sliding field is curved or sloping field on the slopes.

(Skempton and Hutchinson (1969), Chowdhury (1978), Varnes (1978))

Mass movement can occur when there are factors that lead to disruption triggered slope stability so that the style backstop slope of the smaller slopes of style.


Checker slope stability factor is slope gradient, rock composer layer, fracture in the talus field that formed a weak zone slope and hydrological conditions (water system) of slope.

Trigger factors of mass movement, namely:

* Water infiltration, eg rainwater and pond / irrigation is not watertight.
* Vibration, eg earthquake, explosion or vibration in heavy vehicles slopes.
* Wrong land used on slopes area
* Imposition of excessive slope (eg by the home / building).
* Cutting slopes

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Select the first flood or Landslide?

Indonesia awarded by God with the forest area of the mountains which are spread in all corners of the country. So beautiful green carpet is seen. Moreover, if the rainy season, every corner of the empty land around us, grass and shrub is growing so fast. The beautiful panorama is still clearly visible at the time I first small around 1980's.

What beauty is still there until now? If we go to rural areas may still be, but it will be very difficult to meet again in the urban areas. Because the shrub also do not have the right to live there, let alone the forest.

How the fate of our mountains? Some still look natural with a dense tropical forest. But most have very fate of concern. Barren, arid and no sir. While the mountains with dense forests are still many who have experienced landslides. The end result is the same damage to nature.

Perhaps the description above is not an issue that we need to think about because it is hundreds and even thousands of times we hear and natural without any settlement. Whether there is still little awareness of us? If so, I may be the description the following can give a little description of why it can happen, and why floods and landslides continue the seemingly never stopped.

Flood Phenomena

Genesis flood here I only discuss it in the beginning of the headwaters and the river does not discuss about the problems in urban areas that do not lose the complexity.
Hydrological cycle in which the ideal natural conditions, the rain water that fell in the river headwaters
three things happen, namely:

• direct the water flow in the surface soil and into rivers,
• water bottle up by plants ago trickle into some of the land and have some of the flow on the surface and have a vapor return,
• water that seep into ground water.

What if the natural conditions were not ideal, for example, a few plants?

1. Surface flow will be greater, causing soil erosion which will flow along the rivers. So the river became shallow.
2. Water seep into the ground a little more because there is no storm water plants, as the rain and the soil erosion. But the ground water supplies diminish.
3. When rainfall is very high then the flow along the surface sediment will flow downstream to the swift river in spate and the surrounding area. There were floods.

So the outline, one of the causes of the occurrence of flooding in lowland areas of both urban and low is the deforestation in the headwaters area. The cause is poor drainage system, decreasing the infiltration of water due to a settlement and others.

Landslide Phenomena

As I was on the definition of polecat landslides and soil movement in the post earlier, several factors have triggered the occurrence of landslides. When we are talking landslide problem then our attention is on the slope condition. Are slopes causing landslides that bald?

What about the slopes with dense vegetation that? The answer is no landslides have direct contact with the vegetation above, both lush and barren.
The main disturbance is the occurrence of landslide slope stability. Interference can be due to natural and human activities.
Natural causes are:

1. increasing layer thickness due to soil weathering rock layer below the soil due to the volcano activity. Here's the explanation: In the beginning slopes have a thin layer of soil (ideal) so that the slope is stable, although the dense vegetation to grow. Because of the activity in the magma of the earth, the heat generated to spread around and the rock layers of a layer of rock weathering on the outside, and eventually into the ground slopes become unstable due to soil layers thick add more burden on slopes prone to landslides and even surface form of the forest.
2. earthquake
3. river flow which is very swift at the time of rain, causing the river canyon, which is a foot slope tergerus.
4. rain water in the sink in the slope and restrained by a waterproof layer of rock under the soil layer on the slope so that the soil becomes unstable because of water saturated.

While the cause is due to human activities:

1. loading slope for residential development and other buildings
2. cutting foot slope to build houses, roads and other buildings without the cliffs make cultivation post-amputation. For example, the land barrier wall, plaster, etc.
3. wild mining material in the bottom of the river which is a foot slope. Elevation basis with a decrease in river slope then becomes unstable. And landslides.

May still be many other causes that I have not mentioned.

Keeping the mountain or forest?

In addition to natural factors as the causes of floods and landslides that can not be avoided, then there are some dilemmas that occur in an effort to save the hills and forests in the headwaters.
To avoid flooding the condition of water infiltration areas should be as much as possible. With the forest so dense a flood of business is possible. However, on slopes that are not stable, then the existence of the forest with a high level of infiltration is a disaster because it is vulnerable to landslides.
So we need to know the point-prone areas and provide a priority action to save the mountain or forest. Prevent erosion or flooding.
How easy is the most natural condition as the original. But it's not nearly as possible, yet the condition of natural fact we have so sad.
So far all the readers that we can do, what about our actions to reduce the occurrence of factors triggered floods and landslides in our beloved country, the disaster will be reduced so that in the future?

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