The mountain at rest
Posted on 08/28/2010 8:31:22 PM PDT by markomalley
Jakarta - A volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupted Sunday for the first time in 400 years, shooting black smoke and ash up to 1,500 metres into the air and prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Mount Sinabung in the Karo district of North Sumatra province thundered to life shortly after midnight, shooting lava and other volcanic materials from its crater.
Indonesia's state-run Directorate of Vulcanology upgraded the volcano's danger status to the highest level minutes before the eruption of the 2,451-metre peak, located about 1,300 kilometres north-west of Jakarta.
Using trucks, ambulances and buses, local authorities evacuated thousands of residents living in nearby hamlets immediately after the eruption, the state-run Antara news agency reported.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Local media quoted residents as saying lava was visible from several kilometres away, including in Berastagi, a tourist area in North Sumatra.
The Directorate of Vulcanology said Sinabung's eruption was the first recorded since 1600.
'Previously, there was no significant activity at the Mount Sinabung volcano, so the monitoring did not take priority since the 1600s,' Surono, the head of the directorate, was quoted as saying by Antara.
Surono, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said a team of experts were deployed to keep a close eye on Sinabung's activity.
Besides ordering the evacuations, experts also warned residents to wear face masks to avoid health problems from the volcano's ash and told people living along rivers to be alert to the possibility of lava-induced floods.
Indonesia has the highest density of volcanoes in the world with about 500 in the 'Belt of Fire' in the 5,000-kilometre-long archipelago nation. Nearly 130 are active and 65 are listed as dangerous.
Strange how it caught them by surprise. As the lava shifts it tends to cause lots of little quakes which the rest of the world can track.
bookmark to read tomorrow but will be praying for friends in the area in the meantime (and other folks as well, of course!)
Darn, why couldn’t we have these in Kalifornia.
The mountain at rest
Insha’Allah mother f*ckers.
Mount Cinnabon in the Karo syrup district?
Suuuweeeeet!
Isn’t baby Krakatoa also close to blowing?
Big carbon footprint.
They’ll need an indulgence from the Goracle.
Ah, that old FR pastime, commenting on things you don't have the foggiest clue about.
The people living around this volcano (area seems densely populated, unfortunately) are the Karo.
They're 50% Protestant, 18% Catholic, and only 28% Muslim.
I actually considered waiting for more of the usual stream of gloating "God is punishing Muslims!" replies before pointing that out. There will probably be some of those anyway, because the sort of people who that generally don't bother to read the linked articles OR any previous replies.
Most Chinese are Buddhist.
Anak Krakatau has been erupting every few years since 1927. There are no particular indications a catastrophic eruption is imminent.
Looks like the Protestants have been converting Buddhists to get that 50% number, or is it just that Buddhists are smart enough to not answer those intrusive surveys ~ with 29% Moslems around folks tend to quiet up to keep their heads on their shoulders.
I guess we will see. It is clear you know something about history.
Thanks, you beat me to it.
Not really -they're mostly so small you need at least one seismometer, or preferably a small network, on the mountain itself. Indonesia has so many volcanoes and this one was so inactive they didn't have one on this volcano.
Is this the one that has built up from nothing rapidly in the last few years or is it another one?
I thought recentlky it or another one has gotten very high like 800 feet above the ocean.
alternative title:
pimple on ass of world pops
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