BNPB: Volcanic Activity 3 Volcano Becomes The Focus Of Emergency Alert

JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) stated that the eruption of three volcanoes in Indonesia was still the main focus in handling and emergency alerts from the second weekend to the beginning of the third week of January 2025.

"The three volcanoes are Mount Ibu in North Maluku, Mount Lewotobi Laki in East Nusa Tenggara, and Mount Merapi in Central Java," said Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center Abdul Muhari as reported by ANTARA, Monday, January 13.

Abdul explained that Mount Ibu, which is located in Ibu District, West Halmahera Regency, North Maluku, erupted again on Saturday (11/1) at 19.35 WIT. The height of the ash column was observed to be approximately 4,000 meters above the peak (5,325 MDPL) in gray with thick intensity leaning towards the west. This eruption was recorded on a seismogram with a maximum amplitude of 28 mm and a duration of 3 minutes 5 seconds.

At the time of the eruption, Mount Ibu also spewed out incandescent lava about 2 kilometers from the crater center. This lava avalanche can be seen with a bright red naked eye and rising high into the air accompanied by a rumbling sound. Luckily there were no casualties for this incident.

According to him, this condition is a positive impact after all residents living around Mount Ibu received an understanding from the local government to do things that were deemed necessary that referred to rescue, temporary evacuation, and anticipation of the impacts that could be caused.

Mount Ibu, which has been set at Level III or Alert since mid-May 2024, continues to show volcanic activity to this day. Local residents and migrants are expected to comply with recommendations from PVMBG and local governments.

"For this incident, the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation expanded the recommended radius, namely 4 kilometers and 5.5 kilometers sectoral to the crater opening in the northern part of the active crater," he said.

Furthermore, Mount Lewotobi Male-Laki in East Flores Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, continues to erupt to this day. BNPB confirmed that based on the evaluation report summarized in the past week since January 1, 2025, the volcanic eruption activity with an altitude of 1,584 MDPL has occurred six times. On the other hand, the earthquake also occurred six times, earthquakes gusted 135 times, earthquakes 99 times harmonic, earthquakes were low frequency eight times, shallow volcanic earthquakes four times, volcanic earthquakes in 52 times, local tectonic earthquakes nine times, tectonic earthquakes 48 times.

Visual observations during this period showed that the volcanic activity of Mount Lewotobi Male-Laki had increased slightly, the average height of the eruption column was 600-1,200 meters compared to the previous period of 100-1,000 meters.

Based on observations from the Mount Lewotobi monitoring post officer in East Flores, according to Abdul, there was also a silent fire around the peak indicating that lava was pushed to the surface so that it could be observed at night with a red beam in the peak area.

"There is lava material deposit and material that has the potential to become lava in the west-northwest and north-northwest areas of the Lewotobi Laki Volcano crater," he said, adding that from the results of the evaluation, the people around Mount Lewotobi Laki and visitors or tourists are expected not to carry out any activities within a 5 kilometer radius of the central eruption and sectoral southwest - northeast for 6 kilometers.

Finally, Mount Merapi, which is located in four administrative areas including Klaten, Magelang Regency and Boyolali Regency in Central Java and Sleman Regency in DI Yogyakarta, is also still set at Level III or Alert since November 2020 and until today the volcanic activity is quite high.

The eruption activity of Mount Merapi, which is still quite high until early 2025, is a record for the Geological Disaster Technology Research and Development Center (BPPTKG) and local governments, following rain around the peak of the main crater often occurs.

In monitoring conducted by BPPTKG and broadcast in the Media Merapi forum, the volume of rainfall above the peak varies from 8 millimeters to above 100 millimeters. The duration of rainfall ranges from 60-180 minutes.

In addition to hot lava avalanches, he said, the current potential danger is in the form of hot clouds and rain lava floods in the south-southwest sector covering the Boyong River for a maximum of 5 kilometers, the Bedog River, Krasak, Bebeng for a maximum of 7 kilometers.

In the southeast sector, including the Woro River is a maximum of 3 kilometers and the Gendol River is 5 kilometers. Meanwhile, the ejection of volcanic material in the event of an explosive eruption can reach a radius of 3 kilometers from the summit. Monitoring data also shows that the supply of magma is still ongoing which can trigger hot clouds falling inside potential hazard areas.

"Therefore, the community is expected not to carry out any activities in areas of potential danger. The public is also asked to be aware of the dangers of lava and hot clouds falling (APG), especially when it rains in mountain areas," said Abdul Muhari.