Residents within a five-mile radius of the crater were advised to leave the area. There is a tsunami warning in Japan.
Exactly one year to the day after its last eruption, the Semeru volcano on Indonesia’s main island of Java has erupted again. The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Prevention registered signs of further increasing activity and issued the highest warning level 4 on Sunday.
From the early hours of the morning, the volcano had repeatedly spewed hot ash up to 1,500 meters into the sky. The dense cloud of ash descended on the area in a seven kilometer radius around the crater. Nothing was initially known about injuries or damage.
The potential for further high ash columns and pyroclastic flows – extremely fast lava flows – is very high, the volcanology authority said. The Indonesian authorities imposed a total exclusion zone of five kilometers around the crater and a partial exclusion zone 13 kilometers away on the south-eastern slope.
Exactly one year ago earthquake with over 50 deaths
At almost 3700 meters, Semeru is the highest mountain on Java and is located in the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park in the east of the island. He has been more active again since December 2020. When it last erupted in early December 2021, at least 50 people died and thousands had to flee the area.
The island nation of Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most geologically active zone on earth. There, several tectonic plates collide, so that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur particularly frequently. Only about two weeks ago were at one Earthquake on Java more than 300 people died.
In Japan, the eruption triggered a tsunami warning. It applies to the Miyako and Yaeyama island chains in Okinawa Prefecture, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.
(APA/AFP)