Bali Geography

Every aspect of Bali's geography and culture is influenced by the towering range of volcanoes running east to west across the middle of the island. Bali is still being formed by volcanic action. It lies directly on top of a major subduction zone between the Indo-Austrailian plate and the Sunda plate. A violent eruption of Mount Agung in 1963 resulted in multiple landslides and thousands of deaths. Mount Batur erupted in 1994, sending out a massive flow of lava which destroyed an entire local village. Many more recently quiet volcanoes dot the countryside.

The eastern and southern coastline tends to have the better beaches. The tourist areas of Nusa Dua, Sanur, and Kuta have some of the best beaches in the world. The beaches of this area are all white sand while the beaches of the middle western coastline are black sand.

The middle western coastline is full of cliffs. These cliffs have formed over the eons as the ocean crashed against the lava rock and broke off large chucks into the sea. We stayed in a hotel called Le Meridian. It was located close to Tanah Lot - a very important Balinese temple. The entire coastline around our hotel was rugged cliffs which dropped off into the Indian Ocean.