MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CINDER CONES DEGRADATION IN BAJAWA AREA, FLORES, INDONESIA: AN ALTERNATIVE AGE DATING IN THE VOLCANIC COMPLEX

PROCEEDINGS JOINT CONVENTION BALI 2007
The 32^nd HAGI, The 36^th IAGI, and The 29^th IATMI Annual Convention and Exhibition

MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CINDER CONES DEGRADATION IN BAJAWA AREA, FLORES, INDONESIA: AN ALTERNATIVE AGE
DATING IN THE VOLCANIC COMPLEX

I G.B. Eddy Sucipta¹ and Isao Takashima²

¹Geology and Paleontology Research Group, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
²Research Institute of Material and Resources, Akita University, Akita 010-8502 Japan

ABSTRACT

Bajawa Cinder Cone Complex is named numerous cinder cones in the Bajawa area, Flores, Indonesia. This cinder cones can be recognized on the remote sensing geology such as SAR imagery and aerial photograph. There are 78 cinder cones in Bajawa Cinder Cone Complex and they are distributed in almost 20 km from north to south. Measurements of the cinder cones geometry can be used to determine the rate of degradation. Cinder cones in the Bajawa Cinder Cone Complex (where radiometric date studies have determined cone age) decrease in height, height/cone basal diameter ratio and slope through time but the ratio of crater diameter to cone basal diameter does not appear to change with degradation. The cone height to cone basal diameter ratio and average slope angle decrease with increasing cone age but the crater diameter to cone basal diameter ratio is relatively constant for numerous cinder cones in various geologic age. The climatic environments such as rainfall and temperature are the most important factor for the rate of cone degradation.