Mount Sinabung is western Indonesia has erupted, causing volcanic ash to shoot high into the air and forcing villagers in the area to evacuate.
Mount Sinabung's alert status was raised to the second-highest level by officials after the 8,530-for mountain erupted on Sunday morning, News.com.au reports.
"Based on volcano-monitoring data, it was found that increased seismic activities
had occurred in Mt Sinabung while it continued to spew ash rising kilometers into the air," National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Sutopo told the Antara news agency.
The volcano rumbled for about 10 minutes and spewed ash 22,000 feet into the air.
Officials were trying to evacuate residents from four North Sumatra province villages located in the danger zone of about a mile away. Roughly 1,300 villagers were taken to safer areas. "The evacuation aims to protect the local residents from the effects caused by the increased volcanic activities of Mt.Sinabung," Sutopo said.
Sunday's eruption was the second largest just within the last month. Another large explosion took place on October 24, forcing more than 3,300 people to evacuate and that wasn't even the biggest eruption as of late. Mount Sinabung erupted in September after being dormant for three hours. More than 15,000 were forced to evacuate when that surprise eruption occurred.
In the last major eruption in August 2010, two people were killed and 30,000 were forced to flee the area. That eruption was an even bigger surprise because it hasn't erupted for four centuries, according to scientists.
Mount Sinabung isn't the only active volcano in Indonesia. It is one of more than 120. The area is prone to seismic activity as it is located on the Pacific "Ring of Fire." Volcano eruptions and earthquakes often happen along this ring that encircles the Pacific Basin.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
