Mt. Soputan erupts, spews hot ash, lava

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.