On Sunday, Indonesia’s Mount Marapi, situated in the West Sumatra province, experienced a volcanic eruption, emitting ash plumes reaching over 3,000 meters (about 9,800 feet) into the sky. The eruption also propelled hot ash clouds several miles northward, as reported by Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre.
Fortunately, there were no reported casualties, and Ahmad Rifandi, an official at the Marapi monitoring post, assured that villagers were advised to maintain a safe distance of 3 km (1.8 miles) from the crater’s mouth, emphasizing the potential danger of lava.
Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Agency, stated that several villages were covered in falling ash. The alert level for Marapi’s eruption remained at the second-highest, with authorities closely monitoring the volcano following increased activity detected by sensors in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Meteorological Agency announced that it is evaluating the potential tsunami risk in the country due to Marapi’s volcanic activity. If a tsunami were to reach Japanese coasts, the earliest anticipated impact is expected in the Okinawa region at around 2100 JST (0900 GMT).
This recent eruption comes after Mount Marapi’s activity in January, where it released dense ash-and-steam plumes rising as high as 400 meters (1,300 feet) above the crater. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties during that event. Mount Marapi is one of over 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a country situated in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” known for its susceptibility to seismic activity due to its location along an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.