Earth Watch Report - Volcanic Activity
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| Today | Volcano Eruption | Indonesia | Lesser Sunda Island, [Mount Rokatenda (Paluweh)] |  |  |
| Description | |
| A volcano erupted in central Indonesia on Saturday, spewing hot ash and rocks high into the air and killing five people, an official said. Mount Rokatenda, on the tiny island of Palue, sent fast-moving red-hot ash onto a nearby beach, leaving three adults and two children dead, said vulcanology centre head Surono. Rokatenda has been on high alert since October, with authorities banning people from any activities within three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the crater on the island of around 7,000 inhabitants. Surono, speaking from Bandung city on Java island, said his staff at the scene had reported the five people had been killed within the exclusion zone. It was not clear what the victims had been doing in the restricted area when it erupted, he said. "We have found the bodies of the adults, but we are still looking for the children, and it is difficult because the area is still very hot," Surono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP. The volcano began erupting at 04:27 am (2027 GMT Friday) and it continued for nearly four hours, said Surono. He said volcanic ash travelled as far as 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) from the crater. The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the "Ring of Fire" between the Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010. |
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| Updated: | Saturday, 10 August, 2013 at 17:58 UTC |
| Description | |
| Gushing hot lava from an erupting volcano killed six people sleeping in a beach village on an eastern Indonesian island on Saturday, after ash and smoke shot up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) into the air, officials said. Mount Rokatenda in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted early Saturday morning, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. Nearly 3,000 people were evacuated from the area on Palue island, located north of Flores island. The volcano has been rumbling since last October. The victims included three adults and two children, said agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, adding that the age of the sixth person killed was unclear. He said that the adults' bodies were recovered from Ponge beach in Rokirole village, but that the children's were not. Video footage on Indonesia's TVOne showed giant plumes of white and gray smoke and ash belching from the volcano into a sunny blue sky. Prior to Saturday's eruption, many residents had already been moved to safer areas. Mount Rokatenda is one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that's home to some 240 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines. | |
Volcano eruption kills beach villagers in Indonesia
Mount
Rokatenda volcano spews a huge column of hot ash during an eruption
Aug. 10, 2013, in this picture taken with a cameraphone from the Maurole
district of East Nusa Tenggara province. / AFP/Getty Images
Updated at 2:14 p.m. ET
MAUMERE, Indonesia Hot lava from an erupting volcano killed six people sleeping in a beach village on a small island in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, after ash and smoke from the volcano shot about a mile into the air, officials said.
Mount Rokatenda in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted early Saturday morning, and nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated from the area on Palue island, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The volcano has been rumbling since last October.
The victims who died included three adults and two children, said agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, adding that the age of the sixth person killed was unclear. He said that the adults' bodies were recovered from Ponge beach in Rokirole village, but that the children's remains had not been found.
Video footage on Indonesia's TVOne showed giant plumes of white and gray smoke and ash belching from the volcano into a sunny blue sky. Prior to Saturday's eruption, many residents had already been moved to safer areas.
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