Indonesia’s Mt. Sinabung erupts again

Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra, erupted again on Sunday, spewing hot clouds to the south and southeast of the volcano.

The eruption, which occurred at 5:12 a.m. local time, was reported to be the largest of the eruptions that occured in the last two days.

An official with the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center’s (PVMBG) Mt. Sinabung monitoring post, Deri Alhidayat, said on its third day of eruption, Sinabung spewed hot clouds reaching 3,500 meters to the south and 2,500 meters to the southeast.

During its first eruption on Friday, he said, Sinabung released hot clouds that reached as far as 3,000 meters to the south while on its second eruption on Saturday, the volcano’s hot clouds reached 3,000 meters to the southeast.

Deri said the hot clouds released from Sinabung’s eruptions had always moved either to the south or southeast; however, he said, something rare had happened during its third day of eruption.

“In today’s eruption, Sinabung’s hot clouds simultaneously moved to the south and southeast. The hot cloud releases to the south reached 3,500 meters, or farther than the ones in the southeast, which reached 2,500 meters. This is because the lava dome is in the southern side of Mt. Sinabung,” Deri told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

He said Mt. Sinabung still had a huge potential to erupt as the volume of its lava dome was still quite large.

“From the latest data, the volume of Mt. Sinabung’s lava dome has reached 3.3 million cubic meters. Eruptions previously occurred have not yet fully abolished its lava dome; thus, there is still a potential for massive eruptions,” said Deri.

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