More gases erupt from rumbling Indonesian volcano
16 hours ago by Binsar Bakkara
Powerful bursts of hot ash and gravel erupted from a rumbling volcano in western Indonesia early Monday, sending panicked villagers streaming down the sides of the mountain.
Six new eruptions in the morning sent lava and searing gas tumbling up to 1.5 kilometers (.9 miles) down the slopes of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province. Volcanic material spewed as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air a day after authorities had raised the volcano's alert status to the highest level.
About 15,000 people have been evacuated from 17 villages in the danger zone 5 kilometers (3 miles) around the crater, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. The evacuation zone was expanded from 3 kilometers.
Thick, gray ash covered villages, farms and trees as far as 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Mount Sinabung's crater, hitting the towns of Binjai and Langkat.
"Everything turned hot surrounding us," said Jatah Surbakti, a 45-year-old farmer who fled with his wife and four children to a shelter on trucks provided by the local disaster agency, along with hundreds other villagers.
"We were running in panic under the rain of ash and gravel. ... I heard many women and children screaming and crying," he said, adding that his fruit and vegetable farms were destroyed by the ash and his children's schools were disrupted.
The 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) Mount Sinabung has sporadically erupted since September. An eruption in 2010 killed two people and caught scientists off guard because the volcano had been quiet for four centuries.
Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said airlines had been notified to avoid routes near the mountain.
Mount Sinabung is among around 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.http://phys.org/news/2013-11-gases-erupt-rumbling-indonesian-volcano.html
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Mount Sinabung eruption: Dramatic pictures show Indonesian volcano spewing hot ash FIVE MILES into the air
24 Nov 2013Thousands of people have fled their homes after Mount Sinabung erupted eight times today
This is the dramatic moment a volcano erupted and spewed rocks and red-hot ash five miles into the air.
Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted eight times in just a matter of hours today resulting in thousands of people fleeing their homes.
The volcano has been erupting since September but today's activity was by far the most severe.
As reported by Sky News, Robert Peranginangin, a local government official, said:
"People panicked as the eruption was accompanied by a loud thunderous sound and vibrations. Then it started raining down rocks.
"They ran helter-skelter out of their homes and cried for help."
Since the volcano began erupting in September, a total of 12,000 people fled their homes.
Experts have raised the alert level for the volcano to the highest point - which means a dangerous eruption is expected.
People living within a three-mile radius of the volcano have been told to leave their homes.
Click this link for large images of the eruption:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/mount-sinabung-eruption-dramatic-pictures-2847184
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/in-pictures-indonesian-authorities-have-raised-the-volcanos-alert-status-to-the-highest-level-8962824.html?action=gallery&ino=1
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Indonesian volcano erupts eight times within hours
- Date
- November 24, 2013
Time to move: Villagers carry their belongings as they walk to an evacuation centre. Photo: Reuters
A volcano in western Indonesia has erupted eight times in just a few hours, "raining down rocks" over a large area and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
Mount Sinabung has been erupting on and off since September, but went into overdrive late on Saturday and early Sunday, repeatedly spewing out red-hot ash and rocks up to eight kilometres into the air.
Several thousand people left their homes overnight, taking the total number of those who have fled since the volcano rumbled to life to about 12,300, said the national disaster agency on Sunday.
Overdrive: Mount Sinabung spews pyroclastic smoke on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images
"People panicked last night as the eruption was accompanied by a loud thunderous sound and vibrations. Then it started raining down rocks," said local government official Robert Peranginangin.
"They ran helter-skelter out of their homes and cried for help."
He said there were no known casualties from the latest eruptions.
The volcanology agency raised the alert level for the volcano, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, to the highest point on a four-stage scale, meaning a hazardous eruption is imminent or under way.
National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the government was calling for people living within five kilometres of the volcano to leave their homes.
Sinabung, one of dozens of active volcanoes in Indonesia which straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the "Ring of Fire", erupted in September for the first time since 2010.
In August five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a tiny island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted.
The country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesian-volcano-erupts-eight-times-within-hours-20131124-2y45p.html
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Indonesia volcano Mount Sinabung spews smoke (Video)
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