Volcano rumbling again
2005-04-15 07:57
Mount Talang - Indonesia's Mount Talang sent out fresh clouds of dust and continued to rumble on Friday, ruling out an early return home for about 20 000 frightened people who have fled villages on its slopes.
Elsewhere in the country, which is still recovering from the December 26 earthquake and tsunami and a second killer quake last month, three temblors with magnitudes of more 5 or more rocked parts of Java Island, officials said.
There were no reports of injuries or damage from the tremors. Two were located under the Indian Ocean, while a third was close to the west Javanese city of Bandung. Government geologists were trying to establish the exact magnitude of the quakes.
Indonesia is one of the world's most seismological active countries because of its location at the junction of three massive tectonic plates. Aside from Mount Talang, several other volcanoes have rumbled into life in recent days.
Talang, a 2 800m peak on tsunami-hit Sumatra Island, began spewing out ash and dust on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of thousands of villagers to towns farther away from the volcano.
On Friday, the peak again belched out clouds of dust and rumbled, said government geologist Ade Edward. Scientists say that despite the activity, there are no signs a major eruption is imminent.
One of the volcanoes that is showing signs of activity is Anak Krakatoa, a small volcanic island that appeared in the 1930s on the site of the former volcano of Krakatoa. That mountain produced the world's most powerful explosion when it erupted in 1883 and killed an estimated 36 000 people.
- AP