Indonesia: Mount Soputan di Minahasa erupts

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/6/7/mount-soputan-di-minahasa-erupts/

06/07/08 11:17
Mount Soputan di Minahasa erupts

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Mt Soputan situated between South Minahasa and Southeast Minahasa in North Sulawesi province erupted on Friday at 4:15 p.m local time, with thick smoke and ash shooting high into sky.

Several Minahasa residents contacted from Jakarta on Friday said a part of Amurang, capital of South Minahasa regency, was blanketed with ash and fine sand, and by 5:05 p.m, the ash and fine sand that had settled on earth had reached a thickness of up to one centimeter.

The thick and black smoke and ash were clearly visible from Amurang. A Molompar villager, Tombatu subdistrict, in Southeast Minahasa Inyo Rumondor said a number of houses in Lobu, Silian, and Tombatu villages collapsed as they cannot bear the heavy solid materials from the volcano that had landed on their roofs.

The Southeast Minahasa regency administration has sent several ambulances to the villages, but there has been no official report on the number of damaged houses or fatalities caused by the Soputan eruption. (*)

COPYRIGHT ? 2008

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Indonesia: Mount Soputan di Minahasa erupts

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSJAK2190

Indonesia raises alert of volcano as it spews lava
Sat Jun 7, 2008 5:22am EDT

JAKARTA, June 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia has raised the alert level for a volcano on Sulawesi island to the highest after it began spewing hot lava and clouds of smoke, a vulcanology official said on Saturday.

Lava from Mount Soputan has been gliding down its slopes about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from the crater since Friday but has not reached the foot of the mountain, said Saut Simatupang, head of Indonesia's Vulcanology Survey.

"We have urged people to avoid areas near the volcano, especially camping areas in the eastern part of the mountain," he said, adding that residential areas near the volcano were not in any danger.

Indonesia has the highest number of active volcanoes in any country, sitting on a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

People often live and farm on the slopes of volcanoes because of the rich volcanic soil.

In the past two years, at least three major volcanoes, including Anak Krakatau, have showed signs of increased activity, but there has been no serious eruption. (Reporting by Telly Nathalia; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Alex Richardson)