Indonesian volcano spews gas clouds as villagers keep distance
11 March 2021, 11:24
No casualties were reported with villagers advised to stay more than three miles from the mouth of Mount Sinabung.
A rumbling volcano on Indonesia’s Sumatra island unleashed an avalanche of searing gas clouds flowing down its slopes during eruption.
No casualties were reported.
Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province was shooting smoke and ash as high as 3,280 feet into the air and hot ash clouds travelled up to 1.8 miles southeast, Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre said.
There were no casualties from the eruption, said Armen Putra, an official at the Sinabung monitoring post.
He said villagers were advised to stay 3.1 miles from the crater’s mouth and should be aware of the peril of lava.
The alert is being maintained at the second-highest level while authorities are closely monitoring the volcano after sensors picked up increasing activity in past weeks.
The 8,530-feet mountain has been rumbling since last year.
It was sending volcanic materials more than 16,400 feet into the sky and depositing ash on nearby villages when it erupted early this month.
Some 30,000 people have been forced to leave homes around Sinabung in the past few years.
Sinabung was dormant for four centuries before exploding in 2010, killing two people.
Another eruption in 2014 killed 17 people, while seven died in a 2016 eruption.
The volcano, one of two currently erupting in Indonesia, has sporadically come to life since then.
Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
