Mount Semeru Erupts Again, Sprays Ash Up To 1 Km High

JAKARTA - Mount Semeru, which is located on the border of Lumajang and Malang Regencies, East Java, experienced an eruption 10 times with an eruption height of up to 1 kilometer on Saturday from 00.00 to 15.00 WIB.

Of the 10 eruptions, five eruptions were clearly seen with visual eruptions with an altitude of 500 meters, 700 meters to 1000 meters or 1 kilometer above the peak and five eruptions visually not seen because they were covered in fog.

The first eruption occurred at 00.26 WIB with visually an unobserved eruption and the eruption was recorded on a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 22 mm and a duration of 126 seconds.

"At 08.23 WIB, Mount Semeru erupted again with an eruption column height of about 1,000 meters above the peak or 4,676 meters above sea level (masl)," said Mount Semeru Observation Post Officer Sigit Rian Alfian in a written report received in Lumajang.

Then the ash column was observed to be gray with thick intensity to the southwest and the eruption was recorded on a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 23 mm and a duration of 133 seconds.

Furthermore, the 10th eruption occurred at 14:47 WIB and the eruption visual was not observed, but this eruption was recorded on a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 22 mm and a duration of 127 seconds.

Sigit said Mount Semeru is still on Alert status, so the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) provides a number of recommendations, namely that people are prohibited from carrying out any activity in the southeast sector along Besuk Kobokan as far as eight kilometers from the summit (the center of the eruption).

Beyond that distance, he continued, people are not allowed to carry out activities at a distance of 500 meters from the riverbank (river border) along Besuk Kobokan, because it has the potential to be affected by the expansion of hot clouds and lava flows up to a distance of 13 kilometers from the summit.

"People are also not allowed to move within a radius of 3 kilometers from the crater/peak of Mount Semeru, because they are prone to the dangers of throwing incandescent stones," he said.

In addition, he said, the public also needs to be aware of the potential for hot clouds, lava avalanches, and rain lava along rivers/valleys that originate at the top of Mount Semeru, especially along Besuk Kobokan, Besuk Bang, Besuk Kembar, and Besuk Sat, as well as the potential for lava in small rivers that are tributaries from Besuk Kobokan.