BLITAR, Indonesia (AFP) — Thousands of Indonesians living around the slopes of a steaming volcano began returning home Thursday after authorities downgraded a warning that it was about to erupt, officials said.
Indonesia’s volcanology office advised that Mount Kelut no longer appeared poised for an imminent eruption, saying that the historically deadly peak in heavily-populated East Java had released most of its energy.
“The energy that has accumulated since 11 September, 2007 has mostly been spent in an effusive eruption process and has continuously been used in the forming of a lava dome,” the office said in a statement.
New lava has oozed through cracks in the volcano to create a dome rising out of its crater lake, displacing most of the water inside.
Kelut was put on top alert on October 16 after continuous tremors indicated an eruption was in process.
The volcano’s activities, however, have been limited to spewing steam and other gases while the new dome formed, though a spike in tremors last Saturday caused volcanologists to flee their posts as they mistakenly thought a fully-fledged eruption was taking place.
The volcanology office said that residents could return to their homes, but it called on them to remain alert and be prepared to leave should the 1,731-metre (5,679-foot) volcano show renewed dangerous activity.
Noxious gases still being emitted from the crater and a possible eruption involving sludge from the crater lake flowing down the slopes meant that a radius of three kilometres (two miles) should remain off-limits, it added.
Military trucks ferried residents — many of whom were begrudgingly evacuated — from shelters back to their homes, an AFP correspondent said.
“I told you that Kelut wouldn’t erupt. They forced me to evacuate and I’ve had an uncomfortable time in the shelter,” 78-year-old clove farmer Tejo complained to AFP.
According to health ministry figures, about 134,000 people live in a 10-kilometre radius of the peak, which was declared a danger zone during the intensified activity at the volcano.
Kelut explosively erupted in 1990, sending searing gases and volcanic debris shooting down its slopes that killed 34, after authorities downgraded a similar alert. But volcanologist Agus Budianto said that the volcano’s condition then was totally different.
“We have downgraded Kelut’s alert status after it has erupted in an effusive way, meaning that all the energy accumulated since the volcano was put on top alert has already been released,” he explained.
Mount Kelut’s eruptions have claimed more than 15,000 lives, including an estimated 10,000 in a catastrophic 1586 eruption. A 1919 eruption spewed heat clouds that killed 5,160 people.
The volcano is located about 90 kilometres southwest of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city.
Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where several continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Source: http://afp.google.com/
November 8th, 2007
BLITAR, Indonesia (AFP) — An island that has emerged in the middle of the crater lake of Indonesia’s Mount Kelut may have been effectively plugging the volcano but it could be dislodged, scientists warned Tuesday.
The peak in East Java, whose fertile slopes are populated by thousands of people, was put on high alert on October 16 but has not fully erupted, puzzling scientists who say it is impossible to predict what may happen next.
“The island was visually captured by our CCTV (closed-circuit television) on Sunday, with smoke now pluming up to one kilometre (half a mile) from it,” volcanologist Saut Simatupang told AFP.
He estimated that the 100-metre (-yard) long island loomed 20 metres above the surface of the crater lake. The temperature of the lake has soared so high it has broken measuring instruments, he said.
“We still cannot determine whether (the island) is new product or old lava from the 1990 eruption that had solidified at the bottom of the crater lake,” more or less acting as a cork, he said.
It appeared to have been pushed up Saturday night, when volcanologists mistakenly thought an eruption was occurring so they abandoned their posts.
Overnight, continuous tremors shuddered underneath Kelut, with dozens of puffs of steam or smoke shooting into the air, Simatupang said.
“We are not taking a chance yet to get closer to study the volcano, although we think it is mostly steam coming out,” said Simatupang.
“This could go on or it could be that the volcano is keeping its energy for a bigger eruption.”
The head of Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency, Surono, told President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that Kelut appeared to have altered its normal eruptive behaviour.
“There seems to be a change in the volcano’s character, from historical explosive eruptions to an effusive or slow eruption,” he said during a phone call broadcast on ElShinta radio.
“Is it possible that there will be an eruption (given the change), or can we still not have an accurate prediction?” Yudhoyono asked.
“There is a very small probability that there will be an explosive eruption, but I am still doing more evaluation with my colleagues,” Surono replied.
Authorities have been trying to evacuate people living in a 10-kilometre danger zone around the volcano’s peak but many have refused to leave or they return to their homes during daylight hours.
Residents said they were defying a police threat to jail them if they stayed.
“I’m not afraid… If they want to put me in jail, just go ahead,” said Kandi, a 56-year-old clove farmer from Bladak village, eight kilometres from the peak.
The district police chief, Ibnu Istica, told AFP that police were telling people about a new law — that has yet to come in effect — under which people could be jailed for up to three years for refusing evacuation orders.
Since record-keeping began, Mount Kelut’s eruptions have claimed more than 15,000 lives, including an estimated 10,000 in a catastrophic 1586 eruption. A 1919 eruption spewed heat clouds that killed 5,160 people.
Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where several continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Source: http://afp.google.com/
November 8th, 2007