Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupts
Indonesia's Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra recently erupted, spewing lava and hot gas into the air. More than a dozen people have been killed and the surrounding area has been covered with a layer of thick ash.
Fatal eruption
Indonesia's Mount Sinabung volcano erupted on Saturday (01.02.2014), killing at least 16 people on the western island of Sumatra. The volcano has become increasingly active in recent months, regularly releasing columns of ash several kilometers into the air.
Roared to life
Mount Sinabung had been dormant for 400 years until it first erupted in 2010. It had shown reduced activity since mid-January, but on Saturday it spewed lava, hot rocks and ash 2,000 meter into the air, blanketing the surrounding villages and farms with thick gray ash.
A calamity
Among the dead were local tourists, a local television journalist as well as four high school students and their teacher who were visiting the mountain to see the eruptions up close, according to officials, who fear there could be more fatalities. Aid workers said at least 50 people were still missing a day after the eruption.
A miscalculation?
On Friday, a day before the latest major eruption, authorities had allowed nearly 14,000 people living outside the danger zone to return home. More than 30,000 people had been seeking refuge in government buildings, mosques and schools since the latest round of eruptions began last September.
Search and rescue
About 100 rescuers, including members of the military and police, equipped with chainsaws and breathing equipment are carrying out the difficult search operations in the affected region. Yet authorities warned that bad weather conditions and the threat of more blazing clouds may affect their efforts.
Trail of destruction
The national disaster agency said pyroclastic flows from the latest eruption travelled as far as 4.5 kilometers down the volcano's slopes at speeds of about 100 kilometers per hour, destroying everything on their path.
Seismic upheaval
Mount Sinabung is one of nearly 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia that sit on major tectonic fault lines, called the Pacific "Ring of Fire." In 2010, Mount Merapi erupted in the central province of Java, killing more than 350 people and leaving some 150,000 others displaced. The catastrophe is regarded as the deadliest in the country's recent history.
Unpredictable
Scientists continuously monitor mount Merapi, Sinabung and other Indonesian volcanoes, but predicting their activity with any accuracy is an almost impossible task.