JAKARTA, INDONESIA (AP) – Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano has erupted, spewing ash as high as three kilometres (km) into the air, officials said yesterday.
The volcano island located in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait between the main Java and Sumatra islands has erupted at least seven times since late Friday, Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center said.
It was the longest eruption since the explosive collapse of the mountain caused a deadly tsunami in 2018 along the coasts of Java and Sumatra, the centre said.
There were no casualties reported in the latest eruption and no evacuation order was issued.
The nearest settlement is 16.5km away.
The centre’s closed-circuit camera showed lava flares and the volcano continuously erupting until yesterday morning.
The second-highest alert on a scale of four has remained in place since 2018. Authorities in May warned residents and tourists to stay five km from the crater.
Up till then, people used to trek to the top to observe the nature’s spectacle.
Scientists at the centre said that since the 2018 eruption and collapse, Anak Krakatau island is now only about a quarter of its original size.
A 2019 study by the centre shed light on the power of the tsunami that crashed into more than 300km of coastline in Sumatra and Java.
More than 430 people died in the waves that were two metres (m) or higher and 40,000 were displaced.
The centre said that the peak of the crater was 159m high, compared to 338m before the December 2018 eruption.
Anak Krakatau, which means “child of Kratakau”, is the offspring of the famous Krakatau, whose monumental eruption in 1883 triggered a period of global cooling.
