They are layers of ash, coarse sand, volcanic powder and rocky fragments of constant explosions over centuries. The soil of Mount Rinjani, on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, has characteristics that make it extremely unstable. It is like a cute sand, full of stones of various sizes, especially in the cliff area near the edge of Caldeira, where the 26 -year -old Brazilian Juliana Marins fell and died after four days waiting for rescue. The risk, however, cohabitates with the landscape surrounded by mountain chains, and a lake in the volcano crater, attracting daily hundreds of tourists from around the world.
A video released on social networks shows a group walking in a stretch of the trail, shortly after the area where Juliana fell. When stepping, the foot sinks and slides easily, requiring the support of walking sticks. The author of the video, Lucas Vencio, recorded the stretch on the trip he made in November last year, and reported: “It is a trail that requires a lot. In my case, it was two intense days of climbing and descent in a cold of -5 ° C at the top.”
The Rinjani volcano has been having eruptions since the Middle Ages. From the 2000s until today, there were four explosions: 2004, 2009, 2010, and the last in 2016. The main crater is about 8 kilometers long. When it rains, Lahar’s mud (a mixture of water, volcanic ash, rocks and ice, which moves quickly down the mountain) causes erosion, which form abrupt and inclined cliffs.
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“Since the 19th century, with eruptions, there was no time to form stable soils, and this succession of explosions destabilizes the soil greatly, making the trails unstable. The soil is composed of layers of volcanic gray and sprayed rock, which fragment in different sizes, from fine powder to sands and stones,” says Renato Ramos, a geologist of the National Museum.
According to him, the extreme conditions, such as fog, altitude of 3,700 meters, steep trails and cold, make the conditions even more challenging, offering even risk to rescue teams.
Indonesia has over 100 active volcanoes, and about a thousand inactive. The country is in the Pacific Fire Belt region, also known as a fire circle – a horseshoe -shaped area around the Pacific Ocean where most earthquakes and volcanic activity in the world occur.
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“The volcanoes are different from each other. In the explosive type volcano, such as Rinjani, many ashes are created, the terrain is very sandy and very slippery, besides being very steep. The volcanoes in Hawaii or Thailand, for example, are already very different, the lava is solid, does not explode like Indonesia,” says Rosaly Lopes, volcanologer and planetary scientist, In the production laboratory the jet of NASA.
How did the accident of Juliana Marins happened?
Conducted by a local guide, Juliana Marins and other tourists walked a trail on the top of Mount Rinjani, on the island of Lombok, in the Indonesian province of Western probe, whose local time zone is 11 hours ahead of Brasilia time. According to the family, she would have complained of tiredness and stopped. The guide then would have followed a trip, leaving the publicist behind, which eventually fell into a canyon at 500 meters deep. The young woman was located by a drone on Sunday afternoon (22).
According to the official profile of the Mount Rinjani National Park in Indonesia, “the victim was located with the use of a drone, in a position attached to a rocky wall, a depth of approximately 500 meters, and visually without signs of motion at 6:30 am (23) in Indonesia and 17:30 on Sunday (22) in Brazil”.
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Indonesian authorities detailed on the morning of last Monday as the Brazilian Juliana Marins, who was missing after an accident at the Mount Rinjani volcano, the second tallest in the country. Information published on the park’s official Instagram point out that the publicist was monitored “successfully by a drone” and remains trapped in a rocky cliff to a depth of about 500 meters, “visually immovable”.
On the morning of Tuesday, Juliana was found dead after four days arrested on the hillside hard to reach, without water, food or shelter. The confirmation was made by the family on social networks.
