The Merapi project Scientists from Indonesia, France, the US and Germany work on Mt. Merapi. Geological projects work on magma evolution and eruption history. For this method electrical currents are injected by a powerful transmitter into the ground. From the recorded data we can derive the resistivity distribution of the interior of the earth. These resistivities can be associated to different kind of rocks, fluid content and temperature.
Molten rock has a very low resistivity, the cold dry hostrock a high resistivity.
The depth and extend of the magma reservoir can be derived afterwards by combining the electromagnetic results with the results of the other geophysical methods. Repeating the measurements allow us to monitor temporal variations of the resisitivity. From these variations it is possible to infer changes of the status and dynamics of the volcano. The crew consisted of thirteen indonesian and german scientists and students. Clearly notable are the high surface resistivities, e.g. below the summit.