Indonesia's Mount Marapi still highly active

[News_Editor]

Indonesia's Mount Marapi still highly active

2012-03-06 02:17:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

BUKITTINGGI, Indonesia (BNO NEWS) -- Mount Marapi, a volcano located in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra, continues to spew out volcanic ash after several brief eruptions last week, officials said on Monday.

The 2,891-meter (9,485 feet) tall volcano, located near the cities and town of Bukittinggi, Padang Panjang and Batusangkar in West Sumatra, spewed out sulfurous volcanic ashes up to 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) high on Sunday morning.

Bukittinggi's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Agency (PVMBG) officer Suparmo told the Antara news agency that the activity on Sunday was Marapi's strongest in recent days, although he noted that the alert level has remained at level II as the volcano's activity is showing a downward trend.

The volcanic ash on Sunday traveled approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south and authorities have prohibited local residents and climbers from coming closer than 3 kilometers (1.86 mile) from Marapi's peak. It followed two brief eruptions on Wednesday morning.

The volcano has been spewing out ash almost daily since its increased activity began in August 2011, but Suparmo noted that while it could erupt any day, it is impossible to predict when. The PVMBG has installed seismometers and digital analogs at an altitude of 2,000 meters (6.560 feet) at Nagari Batu Palano and at an altitude of 1,500 meters (4,920 feet) at Nagari Lasi in order to monitor the activity.

Mount Marapi is the most active volcano on the island of Sumatra and has erupted 454 times since the late eighteenth century to 2008, fifty of those eruptions at a large scale. Its last significant eruption occurred in 2005.

Dozens of active volcanoes in Indonesia are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, known for frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes is Mount Merapi, which is located on the island of Java near Jogjakarta, the country's second-most visited area after Bali. Last year, more than 300 people were killed in a series of eruptions between October and November which also displaced over 300,000 people.

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