The Indonesian authorities reported this Sunday that seven towns were evacuated after two new eruptions of the Ibu volcano, located on a remote island in the east of the archipelago, and the activation of the maximum alert last Thursday.
The volcano, located on the island of Halmahera, in the province of North Maluku, erupted again on Saturday afternoon, sending clouds of ash to a height of 4,000 meters, according to a statement released today by the National Response Agency to Disasters (BNPB) of Indonesia.
A second eruption occurred shortly after, this time sending clouds of ash to an altitude of about 1,000 meters. In both cases, the country’s Volcano Observatory was able to record the explosion caused by each eruption, as well as explosions of light coming from the crater.
The Army and rescue teams sent trucks and vehicles to evacuate seven villages near the volcano and relocate their inhabitants, the statement added, without specifying how many people were evacuated in total.
On Thursday, Indonesian authorities raised the alert on the Ibu volcano to the maximum level, after a new eruption, the third in a week. “Observations indicate an increase in volcanic activity on Mount Ibu, which is why the alert level was raised from 3 to 4.” [o mais elevado]”the Indonesian Geological and Volcanological Event Mitigation Center (PVMBG) said in a statement.
The agency had already asked citizens not to circulate within a four-kilometer radius and to establish a broader restriction of seven kilometers in the northern part of the volcano, where the active crater is located. Mount Ibu, about 1,325 meters high, erupted last Monday.
Ibu is located north of Halmahera, the largest of the islands in the Maluku group, in the east of the Indonesian archipelago, with an area of 17,780 square kilometers and a population of more than 449,000 people. Indonesia has more than 400 volcanoes, of which at least 129 are still active and 65 are classified as dangerous.
The Indonesian archipelago is located in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity that is shaken by around 7,000 earthquakes a year, most of them low magnitude.
Source: Observadora
