Volcano spewing hot lava

2007-10-26 09:57

Jakarta - An erupting volcano on Indonesia's Sulawesi island began spewing hot lava on Friday, a day after shooting ash some 1 500m into the air, an official said, although nearby villages were still not being ordered to evacuate.

Mount Soputan volcano, which lies in North Sulawesi province, likely was producing a small lava flow, but authorities were unable to spot it because the crater remained covered by clouds, said Agus Budianto, chief of volcano monitoring for Indonesia's state-run volcanology centre, said.

Soputan has been at a Level 3 alert since its last eruption in December 2006 due to its "short duration activity" - meaning it only experiences tremors for short periods before erupting, as was the case on Thursday morning, Budianto said.

A Level 4 alert is only given when an active volcano is threatening the safety of people living nearby, but the villages closest to Soputan are eight kilometres away.

"Historically, the lava trails from this mountain are a maximum of three kilometres," Budianto said.

Meanwhile, the volcanology centre continues to have a Level 4 alert - meaning an imminent eruption - for the Mount Kelud volcano in East Java province, which has forced thousands of people within a 10-kilometre radius to evacuate.

Mount Kelud last erupted in 1990, killing dozens of people, and is regarded as the most active of Indonesia's numerous volcanoes. Kelud's temperature continued to rise on Friday, an indication that an eruption was imminent, Budianto said.

The Indonesian archipelago lies within the "Pacific Ring of Fire", where seismic activity such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA