Officials said on May 1 that ash from an eruption of a distant Indonesian volcano had reached Malaysia, closing six airports, and that thousands of people had to be evacuated in a hurry while authorities dealt with tsunami worries.
This is the second time this month that Mount Ruang has erupted.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of 12,000 residents on April 30 after three separate eruptions of Mount Ruang sent ash and lava more than three miles (five kilometers) into the sky.There was a warning that sections of the volcano may collapse into the sea, creating a tsunami, therefore a warship and rescue ship were sent to assist in relocating thousands of people from the nearby island of Tagulandang north to Siau island.
Indonesia: In A State of Volcanic Emergency
Upon reaching Siau, Rosalin Salindeho, a 95-year-old local of Tagulandang in the northernmost district of Sulawesi province in Indonesia, expressed her concerns about the eruption of Ruang. According to a notification from the state-run air traffic control provider, AirNav Indonesia, seven airports were forced to shut due to the spread of volcanic ash. The largest of these airports was in Manado, the capital of the province, and Gorontalo.
Mount Ruang was still spewing smoke and ash over the crater on Wednesday morning, according to Julius Ramopolii, commander of the monitoring site.
“The volcano is visibly seen, the plume of smoke is visible, grey and thick, and reached 500-700 meters (2,300 feet) above the crater,” a statement from him said.
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He warned the public to stay outside of a seven-kilometer exclusion zone and said that the warning level was still at its maximum of four levels.
Recent events prompted the tsunami worries.
Also in 2018, after a big eruption that sent massive pieces of the volcano slipping into the ocean, the crater of Mount Anak Krakatoa, which is located between the islands of Java and Sumatra, partially collapsed. This caused a tsunami that hurt hundreds of people and killed over 400.
The location of the enormous archipelago country of Indonesia on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” causes it to undergo regular seismic and volcanic activity.
