Mount Ruang volcano erupts again, forces airport closure

MANADO, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Ruang volcano erupted Tuesday for a second time in two weeks, spewing ash virtually 2 kilometers (greater than a mile) into the sky, closing an airport and peppering close by villages with particles.

The alert degree of the volcano on Sulawesi Island was once more raised to the best degree by the Indonesian geological service, after sensors picked up growing volcanic exercise. The company urged residents and climbers to remain not less than 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the volcano’s crater.

The 725-meter (2,378-foot) volcano in North Sulawesi province is about 95 kilometers (59 miles) northeast of Sam Ratulangi Worldwide Airport in Manado, the provincial capital.

The airport was closed Tuesday morning attributable to lowered visibility and the hazards posed to plane engines by ash, mentioned Ambar Suryoko, head of the regional airport authority.

Ash, grit and rock fell from the sky in cities and cities throughout the area, together with Manado, a metropolis with greater than 430,000 folks the place motorists needed to change on their headlights throughout daytime.

“It was darkish with rocks raining on the publish from the eruption,” mentioned Yulius Ramopolii, the pinnacle of Mount Ruang monitoring publish. “The vibrations have been intense and knocked out energy, and volcanic earthquakes shook the glass home windows and every part round us.”

He mentioned the eruption blocked out the solar and peppered a number of villages with falling particles. No casualties have been reported, Ramopolii mentioned.

Greater than 11,000 folks had evacuated after the April 17 eruption when authorities warned {that a} main eruption may collapse a part of the volcano into the ocean and trigger a tsunami that would endanger close by villages.

Lower than 3,000 remained at non permanent shelters after the federal government lowered its alert degree to the second highest from 4 ranges and reopened the airport after 4 days.

Indonesia’s geological company on Tuesday warned folks on Tagulandang Island, particularly those that reside close to the coast, of the potential of sizzling volcanic clouds and a tsunami attributable to eruptions of fabric coming into the ocean or collapse of volcanic dome into the ocean.

Ruang is amongst about 130 energetic volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelagic nation is liable to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Hearth” — a sequence of fault strains stretching from the western coasts of the Americas by Japan and Southeast Asia.

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Related Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.