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Explainer: Heightened volcanic activities unrelated despite occurring in same period
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Mount Ruang volcano erupts in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, on April 19, 2024. The remote volcano sent a tower of ash spewing into the sky, after nearly half a dozen eruptions earlier this week forced thousands to evacuate when molten rocks rained down on their villages. (AFP/Ronny Adolof Buol)
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eightened volcanic activities in several regions across the archipelago have prompted residents to remain vigilant, as a number of eruptions have caused fatalities and forced thousands to flee their homes for safety.
Around 11,000 residents living around Mount Ruang in North Sulawesi were ordered to evacuate their homes earlier this month following an increase in Ruang’s eruption intensity.
The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) even raised the alert status to awas (warning) level, the highest level of the country’s four-tier volcano alert system, after the volcano spewed hot ash 3,000 meters into the air last week.
In April alone, at least seven volcanoes spread across Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, erupted. These included Mount Marapi in West Sumatra, which in December last year spewed a 3,000 m ash tower, taller than the volcano itself, into the sky. Twenty-four of 75 people who were hiking on the volcano at that time were killed.
The activity of several volcanoes in the country have increased ever since. Indonesia, which sits along the horseshoe-shaped series of tectonic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean called the “Ring of Fire”, has 120 active volcanoes.
Read also: Evacuation order issued for 11,000 people after North Sulawesi volcano eruption
According to recent data from the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM), at least six volcanoes remained on siaga (watch), the third-highest level of the alert system, as of Friday.
