MEDAN: Mount Sinabung
(pic) in Karo district, North Sumatra province erupted twice on Thursday, ejecting hot clouds as far as three kilometres away.
The first eruption occurred at 7.37am Western Indonesia Time (WIB), with the ash column reaching a height of one thousand metres in the westerly and southwesterly directions, Head of the Mount Sinabung Observation Post, Armen Putra, stated here on Thursday.
“It was recorded to have an amplitude of 40mm and a duration of 5 minutes and 38 seconds,” he added.
The volcano again emitted hot clouds twice, with the first hot clouds recorded at 9.22am WIB, with a sliding distance of three thousand metres, and the second hot clouds detected at 9.29am WIB, with a sliding distance of two thousand metres from the peak. The emergency status of the 2,460-metre-high volcano has been declared as Level III (alert).
Putra urged residents and farmers to refrain from carrying out activities in villages that have been relocated and at locations within a three-km radius of the mountain’s peak, a five-km radius in the south-east sector, and a four-km radius in the east-north sector.
Mt. Sinabung eruptions claimed two lives in 2010 and 15 lives in 2015.
The last known eruption, prior to recent times, occurred in the year 1600.
