Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, erupted for the second day in a row, sending rows of volcanic materials and ash into the sky early on Saturday up to 18 kilometres, covering the village with debris. No casualties were reported immediately.
Another eruption Friday evening saw clouds of ashes sent up to 10 kilometres high, illuminating the night sky with gleaming lava and lightning. The two eruptions took place in less than five hours.
The Indonesian Geological Agency recorded an avalanche of burnt gas clouds mixed with rocks and lava moving up to five kilometers from the mountain slopes. The drone observations showed deep movement of the magma, causing tremors registered on earthquake monitors.
Volcanic material, including hot thumb-sized gravel, was thrown up to eight kilometres from the crater, covering nearby villages and towns with thick volcanic residue, the agency said. It urged residents to be vigilant about heavy rain that could cause lava flows in the river that began with the volcano.
Saturday’s eruption was one of Indonesia’s biggest since 2010 when Mount Merapi, the country’s most unstable volcano, erupted on the densely packed Java island. The eruption killed more than 350 people and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate.
Also, the massive eruption on July 7 forced delays or cancellations of dozens of flights at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport, less than a month later, when thick grey mud and rocky roads and rice fields were covered.
Lewotvirakiraki is a 1,584-meter volcano on the island of Flores, and has doubled the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer radius, as it has become frequent and frequent since it erupted on June 18th.
The Indonesian government permanently relocated thousands of residents after a series of eruptions killed nine people and destroyed thousands of homes in November.
Indonesia is an archipelago of over 280 million people who are frequently seismic. There are 120 active volcanoes and sit along the Ring of Fire, a series of horseshoe-shaped seismic fault lines surrounding the Pacific Basin.
rhm/