A volcano in western Indonesia is now spewing large clouds of searing gas and ash high into the air, posing threats to nearby villages.
Mount Sinabung, a 2,460-meter tall volcano located in North Sumatra's Karo district, is now being closely monitored after it showed signs of activities, and authorities placed it at the highest alert level last week.
The volcano spewed hot ash that made its way down the mountain's slope up to 1.5 miles from Sinabung's mouth.
No injury has yet been reported but Surono, the government's volcanologist, called for the villagers to keep themselves away from the main danger zone, which extends 4 miles to the southeast of the volcano's crater.
Over 2,700 people have so far been evacuated from nearby villages. Farmers from these villages harvested their crops quickly out of fear that these could be destroyed should there be an eruption.
Surono said that the lava dome's growing size is unstable and that boiling rocks may tumble down the mountain anytime.
The volcano has been spewing ash and smoke more than 1,640 feet into the air since Monday. By early Wednesday, more than 50 separate eruptions had already been counted, albeit authorities said that villages outside the evacuated area are not in danger.
Mount Sinabung erupted in 2013, shooting out black ash and rocks almost two miles into the air, prompting authorities to evacuate villages along the mountain's slope and leading to at least 1,300 people fleeing their homes.
The volcano is one of about 130 active volcanoes in this country. Although it was dormant for the past four centuries, it started erupting at irregular intervals starting in 2010. An eruption of the mountain last year killed at least 17 people.
About 75 percent of Indonesia's population resides within 62 miles of an active volcano. Indonesia is also home of the Toba volcano, a supervolcano. The Toba supereruption that happened thousands of years ago is one of the largest known eruptions that occurred on Earth.
Indonesia is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity because it lies along the so-called "Ring of Fire," a nearly 25,000-mile area where a large number of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur in the Pacific Ocean basin.
This year's month of May was marked by a number of volcanoes erupting from the Ring of Fire. Eruptions occurred in Chile, Costa Rica and Japan.
Photo: Victor Ulijn | Flickr
