Kerinci was covered by Chaussard & Amelung’s survey of west Sunda volcanoes, using ALOS InSAR data. This study covered a surface area of approximately 400,000km² between mid-2006 and mid-2009. At Kerinci, the researchers noted significant uplift, with an average rate of 7.7 cm/yr, though this increased in a roughly linear trend during the study period. The uplift was typically centred around the summit of the edifice. The rate of uplift reached a maximum of 10 cm/yr between 2008 and 2009, shortly preceding a series of small eruptions at the volcano, which led the authors to draw a connection between the two events. Chaussard & Amelung suggest a shallow magmatic source to be responsible for the deformation, which their models estimate to be at a depth of 0.7 km below sea level (4.1 km below the summit).