A man watches as Mount Semeru releases volcanic materials during an eruption on Sunday, December 4, 2022 in Lumajang, East Java, Indonesia. Indonesia’s tallest volcano on the country’s most populous Java island erupted on Sunday.
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A man watches as Mount Semeru releases volcanic materials during an eruption on Sunday, December 4, 2022 in Lumajang, East Java, Indonesia. Indonesia’s tallest volcano on the country’s most populous Java island erupted on Sunday.
AP
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s tallest volcano on its most populated island released clouds of hot gas and lava flows on Sunday in its latest eruption.
The monsoon rains eroded and eventually collapsed the lava dome atop Mount Semeru 3,676 meters (12,060 feet), according to National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Abdul Muhari. eruption.
Several villages were covered in ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties were reported. Hundreds of residents, their faces smeared with volcanic dust and rain, fled to temporary shelters or to other safe areas.
Dense columns of ash were blown more than 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) into the sky while gas and lava flowed down the slopes of Mount Semeru toward a nearby river.
Increased volcanic activity on Sunday afternoon led authorities to extend the danger zone to 8 kilometers (5 miles), said Hendra Gunawan, head of the Center for Volcanic and Geological Risk Reduction. from the crater.
He said scientists had raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest and people were advised to stay away from the southeast area along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.
Semeru’s last major eruption was in December last year, when it erupted violently, killing 51 people in villages buried in mud. Hundreds more suffered severe burns and the eruption forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate. Authorities have moved about 2,970 homes out of the danger zone.
Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted several times over the past 200 years. However, as is the case with many of Indonesia’s 129 active volcanoes, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its fertile slopes.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a series of horseshoe-shaped fault lines, prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.
