Pioneer Plants Found One Year After the 1963 Eruption 
of Agung in Bali 
Anwari Dilmy 1 * * 
Agung, the volcano on the Indonesian island 
of Bali (Fig. 1), erupted in 1843 and caused 
the death of thousands of people and animals. 
No complete report has been written about this 
catastrophe; however, Zollinger (1845) does 
mention it briefly. 
The first indications of the volcano’s being 
active in 1963 were the frequent and recurrent 
feeble earthquake tremors and shocks felt by 
some people living in Jehkuri, a village on the 
southern slope of the volcano at an elevation of 
928 m above sea level and at a distance of 
about 6 km from the summit. The exact times 
of these earthquake tremors and shocks were 
not recorded, but they were felt in the after- 
noon of February 16. The next day weak 
earthquakes were again felt, this time at Kubu, 
a seashore village at the northern foot of the 
volcano. This event caused a slow swinging of 
hanging lamps. 
On the following day, February 18, at about 
11 P.M., weak but distinct rumblings were 
heard for the first time. At 3 A.M. on the 19th 
some people who were alarmed and had stayed 
awake all night noticed the first ascent of a 
thin smoke column which rose vertically up- 
wards. From this moment the activity con- 
tinued intermittently, with the period of activ- 
ity lasting for about 1 hr followed by a rest 
period of 1 hr. On the night of the 19th glows 
were visible on the northern crater rim. 
The periodic volcanic activity continued with 
increasing intensity until February 20, on which 
day lava started to flow along the northern 
slope and nuees ardentes came down along the 
same direction, causing the death of the first 
victims at Siligading. The outpouring of lava 
continued until the middle of March. The length 
of the stream grew to 7 km and its tongue 
stopped at an altitude of about 500 m. Day by 
1 Herbarium Bogoriense of the National Biological 
Institute, Bogor, Indonesia. Manuscript received June 
30, 1964. 
day the volcano’s activity increased in intensity. 
The first paroxysmal eruption started on 
March 17 at sunrise and lasted for about 7 hr. 
It was preceded early in the morning two days 
before by a strong local earthquake. As a con- 
sequence of the explosions new breaches ap- 
peared in the southern and northern slopes, 
with the resulting destructive forces reaching 
a maximum distance of 14 km. 
Explosions from the cavity of the crater on 
March 17 brought an end to the outflow of 
lava. The characteristics of the andesito-basalt 
lava, the fact that it began its outpouring in 
the earliest phase of the eruption, and the fact 
that its outpouring stopped just before the 
paroxysmal explosions on March 17, support 
the theory that this lava was a remainder from 
the previous eruption of 1843 jammed in the 
volcano and heated and liquefied in the present 
eruption. 
The number of deaths caused during the 
first cycle of the 1963 eruption was about 1,100, 
and about 150 during the second outburst. 
Mr. Kusumadinata (1964) of the Geologi- 
cal Survey of Indonesia estimated the volume 
of the volcanic material energy (Table 1). The 
total volume of ejected material is about 280 X 
10 6 cubic meters. From this estimated volume 
of ejected material the released thermal and 
kinetic energy are computed. 
Thus the total kinetic and thermal energy, as 
estimated, amounts to 8.2 X 10 24 ergs. 
The lava, streams of mud, glowing clouds, 
nuees ardentes, lapilli, sand and ash killed not 
only people and animals but also the plants. 
In May 1963 we made a trip to the Besakih 
shrine near the resthouse of the Forest Service, 
on the northern slope of Agung, more than 
900 m above sea level. Here we saw nothing 
but dead plants — trees, shrubs, herbs, and 
grasses, fungi, ferns, mosses, and lichens. It was 
very quiet in the neighborhood of the Besakih 
shrine. 
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