JP/5/volcano

JP/5/volcano

Mt. Soputan erupts again, spewing hot ash, smoke

Jongker Rumthe
and Ruslan Sangadji
The Jakarta Post/Manado/Palu

Mount Soputan in Tomohon, some 25 kilometers from the North
Sulawesi capital of Manado, belched blue smoke to a height of
about 600 meters and spewed hot ash and lava, officials said on
Tuesday.

The eruption occurred at around 4 p.m. on Monday, but the
activity of the 1,830-meter volcano reportedly decreased on
Tuesday.

Ash and smoke from the volcano covered several parts of nearby
Minahasa regency and damaged hundreds of plantations along the
mountain's slopes.

No injuries were reported in the incident, nor were villagers
ordered to evacuate the area.

Clouds of ash disrupted the daily activities of residents in
West Langowan district, where visibility fell to between 10
meters and 30 meters.

Motorists switched on their headlights during the day due to
the poor visibility, and most residents stayed home.

Landy Aruperes, a West Langowan district official, said local
homes were covered by up to four centimeters of volcanic ash.

The smoke did not reach Manado because of a westerly wind,
which pushed the smoke to Palu in neighboring Central Sulawesi
province, where visibility decreased to seven kilometers.

"Based on our investigation, the haze came from Mount
Soputan," Ibnu Sofwan Lukito, a volcanologist in Palu, told The
Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He added the haze arrived at 10 a.m. in the city, but had not
disrupted flights to and from Palu.

Head of Mount Soputan volcano monitoring center Jemmy
Runtuwene said in Tomohon that the status of the volcano was
raised on Monday to above normal.

"We are continuing to monitor the volcanic activity. Our
seismograph recorded five to 20 tremors on Monday. Normally,
volcanic quakes only occur about five times," he said.

Soputan last erupted on Aug. 18, 2003, belching black smoke up
to a height of 1,600 meters over the crater and spewing hot ash
and other volcanic materials across nearby areas. No casualties
were reported.

Another volcano monitoring center official, Juhdi Juhara, said
on Tuesday that compared to Monday, the mountain had calmed.

"(Monday), the pillar of smoke and ash reached up to 600
meters high and spread up to dozens of kilometers away. But
today, the volcano spewed smoke and ash of only up to 300 meters
from the crater," Juhdi added.

Indonesia has the world's highest density of volcanoes with
500 located in a so-called "Belt of Fire" along the 4,800
kilometers of archipelago. Of these, 128 are active, with 65
listed as dangerous.