The Merapi Interactive Project: Offering a Fancy Cross-Disciplinary Scientific Understanding of Merapi Volcano to a Wide Audience.

Abstract:

The Merapi volcano is of great interest to a wide audience as it is one of the most dangerous volcanoes worldwide and a beautiful touristic spot. The scientific literature available on that volcano both in Earth and Social sciences is rich but mostly inaccessible to the public because of the scientific jargon and the restricted database access.

Merapi Interactive aims at developing clear information and attractive content about Merapi for a wide audience. The project is being produced by the Art and Media Group at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, and it takes the shape of an e-book. It offers a consistent, comprehensive, and jargon-filtered synthesis of the main volcanic-risk related topics about Merapi: volcanic mechanisms, eruptive history, associated hazards and risks, the way inhabitants and scientists deal with it, and what daily life at Merapi looks like. The project provides a background to better understand volcanoes, and it points out some interactions between scientists and society.

We propose two levels of interpretation: one that is understandable by 10-year old kids and above and an expert level with deeper presentations of specific topics. Thus, the Merapi Interactive project intends to provide an engaging and comprehensive interactive book that should interest kids, adults, as well as Earth Sciences undergraduates and academics.

Merapi Interactive is scheduled for delivery in mid-2016.