Indonesia'S Mount Marapi Has Small Eruption

[News_Editor]

Indonesia's Mount Marapi has small eruption < br />

2012-05-19 09:03:35 GMT+7 (ICT)

BUKITINGGI, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Indonesia's Mount Marapi volcano, located in the province of West Sumatra, on Friday morning erupted.

The 2,891-meter (9,485 feet) tall volcano, located near the cities and town of Bukittinggi, Padang Panjang and Batusangkar in West Sumatra, erupted at around 7:15 a.m. local time, spewing out ash around 600 meters into the sky.

Marapi observation post volcanologist Suparmo told the Jakarta Globe that the short eruption only lasted around ten minutes.

Last August, Marapi's alert starus was upgraded and the volcano has had several eruptions since. Currently, authorities have established an Alertt II status for Mount Marapi in the country's five-scale alert. Authorities have also placed a danger zone measuring a three-kilometer radius from its peak.

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.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-05-19