PADANG (AP) – One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes erupted yesterday, spewing thick columns of ash at least three times and blanketing villages with debris, but no casualties were reported.
Mount Marapi, in Agam district of the province of West Sumatra, is known for sudden eruptions that are difficult to predict because they are not caused by a deep movement of magma, which sets off tremors that register on seismic monitors.
It unleashed hot ash clouds that spread for several miles, covering nearby villages and towns with thick volcanic residue, said official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre at the Marapi monitoring post Ahmad Rifandi.
It also shot ash columns as high as 2,000 metres (m).
Rifandi said the nearly 2,900m volcano has stayed at the second highest of four alert levels since January, prohibiting climbers and villagers within three kilometres from the crater’s mouth because of potential lava. Marapi erupted in December 2023.
