Indonesia’s Sinabung volcano erupts, ejecting towering column of ash
- The volcano on Sumatra island has been rumbling since 2010
- 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’
The volcano on Sumatra island has been rumbling since 2010 and saw a deadly eruption in 2016. Activity had picked up in recent days, including a pair of smaller eruptions at the weekend.
There were no reports of injuries or deaths from Monday morning’s blast, but authorities warned of possible lava flows and more eruptions.
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Indonesia’s Sinabung volcano erupts, dumping ash on surrounding villages
“This is an alert for all of us to avoid red-zone areas near Sinabung,” said Armen Putera, a local official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre.
However, the crater’s alert status remained at its second-highest level.
No one lives inside a previously announced no-go zone around the volcano.
Small communities nearby were coated in a layer of thick ash as at least one village went from day to night in a matter of minutes.
“It was like magic – when the ash came it went from being very bright to dark as night,” said Rencana Sitepu, the head of Namanteran village, adding that some of the community’s crops were destroyed by the fallout. “The village went dark for about 20 minutes.”
“Locals were gathering after the eruption without using face masks because they were all panicking,” said local disaster agency chief Natanael Perangin-angin.
Sinabung had roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years. After another period of inactivity, it erupted once more in 2013, and has remained highly active since.
Indonesia is home to about 130 active volcanoes due to its position on the “Ring of Fire”, a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs.