Indonesia’s Mt. Sinabung volcano erupts, again

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA - A volcano suddenly erupted on Tuesday morning in Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province, local media reported.

According to The Jakarta Post, a local daily, the volcano erupted early this morning after being inactive for about a year.

“The eruption took place at 6:41 a.m. [2341 GMT Monday], spewing ash 2,000 meters into the air in a northeast direction,” the daily quoted Nurul Asrori, a Sinabung monitoring officer, as saying.

The official said that the eruption was “first since May 2018” and was felt until 10:44 a.m. (0344GMT).

“The ash spew could drift as far as 15 kilometers [9 miles],” he said.

According to Karo Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPDB) head Martin Sitepu, four districts were badly affected by the eruption.

The volcano, which has been rumbling since 2010 and underwent a deadly eruption in 2016, did not have a lava dome, the report added.

“Nobody is allowed to do anything within a 3-km [1.9-mile] radius in the north-west sector, 4-km [2.5-mile] in the south-west sector, 7-km [4.3-mile] in the south-southeast sector, 6-km [3.8-mile] in the southeast-east sector and within a 4-km [2.5-mile] radius in the north-east sector,” Asrori said.

The BPDB head said the volcano eruption has hit the local economy hard because the ash damaged plantations.

Indonesia is home to about 130 volcanoes because of its position on the Ring of Fire, a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs.