Boundaries along the edge of the land - a headland of secondary forest, black volcanic sandy beaches, earthquakes, tsunamis, a fishing industry and tourism

The edge of land and ocean at Pangandaran is a boundary holding multiple physical and human geographical dimensions!

The forest covered promontory is linked to Pangandaran by a low lying isthmus and is designated as the Pangandaran Nature reserve, an area of conservation of secondary rainforest.

This "jungle" is not a primary forest as it has re-established itself since originally being designated as a game reserve for banteng (Bos javanicus), an endangered species of wild native nocturnal jungle cattle.

The park covers 530 hectares with a mix of secondary rainforest, towering teak trees and grasslands for grazing animals with a central elevated plateau about 100 metres above sea level, peaking to about 150 metres, edged with a lacework of tiny jagged limestone bays and sandy beaches. Two entrance gates to the east and west lead to a network of trails around the park which can be easily followed.

Most commonly sighted are Sunda sambar deer (Rusa timorensis) and long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) both of which can often be seen wandering the nearby streets and beaches outside the reserve, they are not shy. So says Travelfish:

You may be lucky to see massive monitor lizards scamper away as you tramp through the forest, or the shy Javan langur or ebony leaf monkey (Trcyphithecus auratus) high in the trees. At dusk you may see Sunda flying lemurs (Galeopterus variegatus) gliding from tree to tree like a flying superhero with their cape spread.

There are two species of hornbills that inhabit the park, oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros convexus) and rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros).

With the help of a local guide it is possible to find examples of the increasingly rare Rafflesia, the official state flower of Indonesia, where it is known as puspa langka (rare flower) or padma paksasa (giant flower). The plant has no stems, leaves or roots. It is a holoparasite of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside the tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the five-petalled flower. The flowers look and smell like rotting flesh, hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower" (see below).

The foul odor attracts insects such as flies, which transport pollen from male to female flowers. Most species have separate male and female flowers, but a few have hermaphroditic flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal. However, tree shrews and other forest mammals eat the fruits and disperse the seeds.

The botanical name for this plant reflects the 19th century European imperialist and colonial presence in Java and Sumatra, and in particular, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies (1811–1816) and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen (1818–1824), and best known for his founding of Singapore and the British Malaya.

Raffles was heavily involved in the conquest of the Indonesian island of Java from Dutch and French military forces during the Napoleonic Wars and contributed to the expansion of the British Empire. He also wrote The History of Java (1817).

As far as the science of botany was concerned, it was first discovered by Louis Deschamps in Java between 1791 and 1794, but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861. It was later found in the Indonesian rainforest in Bengkulu, Sumatra by an Indonesian guide working for Joseph Arnold in 1818, and named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the leader of the expedition.

This is Pangandaran "the tourist destination"!

On the edge of the Ring of Fire - Earthquake and tsunami

These beaches of black volcanic sand were inundated by a tsunami on 17 July 2006. This tsunami was a result of an undersea earthquake measuring 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale triggering tsunami runups (height above normal sea level) that were typically 5–7 metres (16–23 ft) which then engulfed the resort area and caused destruction as far inland as half a kilometre. According to the Wikipedia article 2006 Pangandaran earthquake and tsunami over six hundred people were killed in this natural disaster.

The island of Java sits on the edge of the so-called "Ring of Fire", a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. In a large 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes (more than 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes).

About 90% of the world's earthquakes and about 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. All but three of the world's 25 largest volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics: the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates, especially subduction in the northern portion.

The island of Java is the most densely populated island on Earth, and is vulnerable to both large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, due to its location near the Sunda Trench, a convergent plate boundary where the Australian tectonic plate is subducting beneath Indonesia. Three great earthquakes occurred in the span of three years to the northwest on the Sumatra portion of the trench.

The earthquake was the result of thrust faulting at the Sunda Trench. A rupture length of approximately 200 kilometers (120 mi) (and an unusually low rupture velocity of 1–1.5 km (0.62–0.93 mi) per second) resulted in a duration of about 185 seconds (just over three minutes) for the event. The shock was centered 50 kilometers (31 mi) from the trench, and about 180 kilometers (110 mi) from the south coast of the island.

The large and damaging tsunami that was generated was out of proportion relative to the size of the event, based on its short-period body wave magnitude.

A tsunami warning system was not in operation at the time of the shock, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Hawaii) and the Japan Meteorological Agency posted a tsunami watch, based on the occurrence of a M7.2 earthquake. The bulletin came within 30 minutes of the shock, but there was no means to transmit the warning to the people on the coast that needed to know. Many of those who felt the earthquake responded by moving away from the shore, but not with any urgency. The withdrawal of the sea that exposed an additional 5–10 meters (16–33 ft) of beach created an even more significant warning sign, but in some locations wind waves on the sea effectively concealed the withdrawal that signalled the approach of the tsunami.

The earthquake and tsunami came on a Monday afternoon, a day after many more people were present on the beach, due to a major national holiday. The waves came a few tens of minutes after the shock (and were a surprise, even to lifeguards) and occurred when the sea level was approaching low tide which, along with the wind waves, masked the initial withdrawal of the sea as the tsunami drew near. Most portions of the south Java coast saw runup heights of 5–7 meters (16–23 ft), but evidence on the island of Nusa Kambangan indicated that a peak surge measuring 21 meters (69 ft) had occurred there, suggesting to researchers that the possibility of a submarine landslide had contributed to the magnitude of the tsunami in that area.

A 300 km (190 mi) portion of the southwest and south-central Java coast was affected by the tsunami, and resulted in around 600 fatalities, with a high concentration in Pangandaran.

Since the earthquake caused only minor ground movement, and was only lightly felt, all the damage that occurred on the island was due to the tsunami. Types of buildings that were affected were timber/bamboo, brick traditional, and brick traditional with reinforced concrete.

Hotels and some houses and shops that were of reinforced brick construction were far better off, because units that were exposed to a flood depth of 3–4 meters (9.8–13.1 ft) were considered repairable.
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Many wooden cafes and shops within 20 meters (66 ft) of the shore were completely removed by the tsunami at Pangandaran, and severe damage still occurred to unreinforced masonry that was within several hundred meters, but some hotels that were constructed well held up better. The villages of Batu Hiu and Batu Kara, both to the west of Pangandaran, experienced similar damage. 

Other severe damage was seen at Marsawah village, Bulakbenda, where all buildings had been removed down to their foundation within 150 meters (490 ft) of the water line, and even 300–500 m (980–1,640 ft) further inland there were many buildings that were totally destroyed. Witnesses reported that waves were breaking several hundred meters inland at that location.

A fishing hut near Pangandaran

The tsunami affected this part of the coast of Java where the communities make a living mostly through fishing and the beach resorts that were unscathed following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

This region is also only several hundred kilometers distant from the region that saw heavy destruction just several months before during the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake.

A July 19 2006 NASA satellite image of the Pangandaran coast showing tsunami debris.

The mythical origin of Java

Living in an earthquake zone along the edge of clashing tectonic plates has entered into legend, and the stories of folklore and religious belief.

The Tantu Pagelaran is an Old Javanese manuscript written in the Kawi language that originated from the 15th century Majapahit period. The manuscript describes the mythical origin of the island of Java. The manuscript tells the story that Batara Guru (Shiva) ordered the god Brahma and Vishnu to fill the island of Java with human beings. However, at this time Java as an island was floating freely on the ocean, tumbling and shaking. To make the island stable, the gods decided to fix the island upon the earth by moving a significant part of Mahameru in Jambudvipa (India) and placing it upon Java. The god Vishnu was transformed into a giant turtle to carry this part of mount Meru upon his back, while the god Brahma was transformed into a giant naga serpent and wrapped his body around the mountain and giant turtle's back, making sure that this part of the Meru mountain could be transported safely to Java.

Initially the gods placed the holy mountain on the first part of Java they encountered, in the western part of Java. However the enormous weight of the Meru mountain tilted the whole island and caused a dramatic instability resulting in the eastern end of Java to rise. So, the gods decided to move the mountain eastward, but in doing so the gods scattered the mountain fragments thus creating the volcanoes and mountainous regions that run from west to east spanning the entire length of the island of Java.

When the main part of the Meru mountain attached upon the eastern part of Java, the island was still tilted and imbalanced,  and this time it was the western part of that Java rose up. To balance the island the gods cut a small tip of the land and placed it in the northwest part of East Java. This become Mount Pawitra and that today is taken to be Mount Penanggungan, while the main part of the Meru mountain became the Semeru volcano and the abode of Lord Shiva.

The Semeru Volcano

This image taken from the International Space Station shows the island of Java and the islands of Bali and Lombok with plumes of volcanic emissions from the active volcanoes along the island chain.