Scientists keep eye on five raging volcanoes<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Bandung\/Padang\/Surabaya\/Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Scientists anxiously watched five volcanoes nationwide on
\nThursday, as fears over more natural disasters escalated with
\nfour mountains rumbling into life over the past three days.<\/p>\n
While thousands of refugees spent a third night in tents
\nhaving fled the slopes of Sumatra's Mount Talang, where hot ash
\nhas been raining down since Monday, much attention focused on
\nMt. Tangkuban Perahu, which is located near densely populated
\nBandung city and only a few hundred kilometers east of Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Next week Bandung will host more than 50 heads of state,
\nincluding China's president, at the Asian-African Summit.<\/p>\n
While activity on the mountain decreased on Thursday compared
\nto a day earlier, biggest crater on the volcano, Domas, spewed
\nhot ash into the air 21 times.<\/p>\n
\"The earthquake frequency around the crater has dropped to 47
\nmild earthquakes compared to 100 earthquakes yesterday. But,
\nalthough the quake intensity has dropped, as a precautionary
\nmeasure, we are still closing the area near the crater to the
\npublic,\" said Syamsul Rizal, the chief of a volcanology team
\nstationed at an observation post near the mountain.<\/p>\n
With 11 mountains in the country on \"watch status\",
\nvolcanologists were paying the closest attention to Mt. Tangkuban
\nPerahu, Mt. Anak Krakatau and Mt. Talang in West Sumatra, Mt.
\nSemeru in East Java and Mt. Merapi in Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday, activities in the five volcanoes had not
\nincreased.<\/p>\n
Syamsul said the Talang eruption and increased activities of
\nTangkuban Perahu and Anak Krakatau were triggered by the giant
\nearthquakes in the Nias and Aceh regions recently.<\/p>\n
\"The tectonic earthquakes can trigger volcanic earthquakes
\nunder several conditions, namely that the volcano has an open
\ncrater, has its own fluid or gas sources, has shallow magma or if
\nthe volcano is unstable. Needless to say, every volcano has its
\nown characteristics,\" Syamsul said.<\/p>\n
This would explain why the earthquakes did not affect other
\nvolcanoes located near their epicenters, he said. \"It seems that
\nTangkuban Perahu and Anak Krakatau are more unstable than those
\nthat have been inactive for thousands of years,\" Syamsul said.<\/p>\n
Anak Krakatau -- the \"child\" of the legendary Krakatoa that
\nblew itself apart in 1883 in one of the worst-ever natural
\ndisasters -- was put on alert status late on Wednesday amid
\nwarnings of poisonous gas emissions.<\/p>\n
No one lives on Krakatau but the peak is a popular tourist
\nspot.<\/p>\n
While petty traders on the sides of Tangkuban Perahu had been
\nevacuated despite the \"watch\" status, hundreds of thousands of
\npeople living nearby the slopes of the volcano stayed put in
\ntheir houses, warily watching the smoking giant.<\/p>\n
There have been 21 minor eruptions on the mountain since 1986.<\/p>\n
In a separate development, a senior government official in
\nWest Sumatra reported the Mt. Talang eruption on Tuesday had
\ncaused losses to state plantation company PT Kebun Danau Kembar.<\/p>\n
\"We have to cease production as ashes have covered our tea
\nplantation,\" said Andre Tanjung, a manager at the company, adding
\nthat the eruption cost the company about Rp 720 million a day
\n(US$80,000).<\/p>\n
The 11 volcanoes under the watch of volcanologists are among
\nat least 129 active volcanoes in the country that are part of the
\nPacific \"Ring of Fire\" -- a series of volcanoes and fault lines
\nencircling the Pacific Ocean and taking in the Americas, Japan,
\nSoutheast Asia and New Zealand.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/scientists-keep-eye-on-five-raging-volcanoes-1447893297",
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