JAKARTA, Dec 4 (Portal) – Indonesian authorities on Sunday raised the warning over Java island’s Semeru volcano to the highest level after an eruption sent an ash column high into the air.
Evacuation of people, including children and seniors, living near the volcano in East Java province had also begun, with 93 residents evacuated to temporary shelters so far, Indonesia’s civil protection agency BNPB said in a statement.
The plume from the volcano reached a height of 15 km (50,000 feet), said Japan’s meteorological agency, which monitored the possibility of a tsunami there.
The eruption in eastern Java, about 640 km (400 miles) east of the capital Jakarta, follows a series of earthquakes in the west of the island, including one last month that killed more than 300 people.
Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, PVMBG, has raised the level of volcanic activity from III to IV, its chief said in a text message.
With the heightened alert level, authorities warned residents not to conduct any activities within 8 km (5 miles) of the Semeru eruption center, adding that hot ash plumes were as far as 11.8 miles (19 km) from the eruption center.
PVMBG chief Hendra Gunawan said the agency sees the potential for a greater supply of magma this year compared to previous eruptions in 2021 and 2020.
“Therefore, the hot clouds from Semeru (this year) could reach further and there are many dwelling places at that distance,” he said.
Around the same time last year, the eruption of Semeru, Java’s highest mountain, killed more than 50 people and left several missing while thousands were displaced.
According to a statement from the regional government of Lumajang, where Semeru is located, some nearby residents have been evacuated independently to safer buildings such as mosques and schools.
“Most roads have been closed since this morning. Now it’s raining volcanic ash and has obscured the view of the mountain,” Bayu Deny Alfianto, a local volunteer, told Portal by phone.
Small eruptions continued and it rained in the area, he said.
The volcano’s eruption began at 2:46 a.m. (1946 GMT on Saturday), BNPB said in a statement. Videos posted to social media showed gray plumes of ash in nearby areas.
With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia has the world’s largest population living in close proximity to a volcano, including 8.6 million within a 10 km (6 mi) radius.
The deadly quake that struck Cianjur in West Java in late November was a shallow magnitude 5.6 tremor. A much stronger 6.1 magnitude quake in Gurat on Saturday caused people to run out of buildings but did no major damage.
Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Angie Teo in Jakarta; Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo; Edited by William Mallard and Lincoln Feast
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