Saturday, April 26, 2008
Indonesia is about to suffer more volcano eruptions
Indonesia raised its alert for Anak Krakatau, successor to the volcano that blew up the island of Krakatau in 1883, and Ibu to the second-highest level after the two began spewing ash.
Anak Krakatau, in the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra, and Ibu, in the Moluccan Islands in eastern Indonesia, were placed on ``orange'' alert in the four-step color code, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources said yesterday. It recommended people not come within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of the volcanoes.
The explosion 125 years ago of Krakatau, also known as Krakatoa, left two-thirds of the island under water, generated 130-foot waves and killed an estimated 36,000 people. It blasted enough debris into the atmosphere to lower global temperatures for several years.
Anak Krakatau, or ``child of Krakatau,'' has been rising from the sea since 1930 and its peak is now more than 300 meters above sea level. Mount Ibu, on the island of Halmahera, had a small explosive eruption in 1911.
The alerts for Anak Krakatau and Ibu followed the April 15 announcement that Mount Egon on the island of Flores, east of Java, had been raised to ``orange'' after it spewed ash. Evacuations were ordered around the volcano.
Indonesia is located on the western side of the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geologic fault lines surrounding the Pacific Basin. The country has had two of the world's biggest volcanic eruptions in the past 200 years, Mount Tambora in 1815 and Krakatau.
To contact the reporters on this story: Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net.
Anak Krakatau, in the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra, and Ibu, in the Moluccan Islands in eastern Indonesia, were placed on ``orange'' alert in the four-step color code, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources said yesterday. It recommended people not come within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of the volcanoes.
The explosion 125 years ago of Krakatau, also known as Krakatoa, left two-thirds of the island under water, generated 130-foot waves and killed an estimated 36,000 people. It blasted enough debris into the atmosphere to lower global temperatures for several years.
Anak Krakatau, or ``child of Krakatau,'' has been rising from the sea since 1930 and its peak is now more than 300 meters above sea level. Mount Ibu, on the island of Halmahera, had a small explosive eruption in 1911.
The alerts for Anak Krakatau and Ibu followed the April 15 announcement that Mount Egon on the island of Flores, east of Java, had been raised to ``orange'' after it spewed ash. Evacuations were ordered around the volcano.
Indonesia is located on the western side of the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geologic fault lines surrounding the Pacific Basin. The country has had two of the world's biggest volcanic eruptions in the past 200 years, Mount Tambora in 1815 and Krakatau.
To contact the reporters on this story: Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net.
# posted by kevin : 8:53 PM
