The Status Of Mount Lewotobi Becomes Alert, The Geological Agency Reveals That The Second Crater Is Getting Wider

JAKARTA - The Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) stated that the eruption index (VEI/Volcanic Index Eruption) of Mount Lewotobi, East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara is at levels 1 to 3.

Head of the Geological Agency Muhammad Wafid explained that the Mount Lewetobi eruption index for level 3 and the largest confirmed cases occurred three times.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Geological Agency, the first event occurred in 1675 or approximately 25 years, then the second was on 28 September-30 October 1907, and the third was on 23 May-26 December 1932.

Meanwhile, for VEI 2 Mount Lewotobi, it was explained in a broadcast by the Geological Agency that occurred on 23 December 2023-16 August 2024 and continued.

"The eruption of Mount Lewotobi is in the range of 1 to 29 years, the shortest of 1-7 years and the longest of 18-19 years. With the range of VEI 1-3," he said at a press conference held online in Jakarta, Thursday, February 13, which was confiscated by Antara.

According to Wafid, the series of eruptions and volcanic activity quite affected the condition of the two crater holes of Mount Lewotobi, which are currently widening because the walls had landslides or died, precisely in the northwest.

Meanwhile, Mount Lewotobi is a twin volcano with two peaks, namely Lewotobi Laki with a height of 1,584 meters above sea level (MDPL) and Lewotobi Perempuan.

His party ensures that the changes to these two craters will continue to be monitored by the Geological Agency team and have been intensified starting from October 18, 2024, which is carried out direct monitoring using unmanned aircraft (drone) devices.

"This is all based on the level of activity that our friends continue to monitor in the field, especially the male lewotobi mountain post. This means that the activity of Mount Lewotobi is very, very fast experiencing avalanches in the crater hole of its eruption," he said.

From these findings, the Geological Agency hopes that it can also be a reference for a series of disaster mitigation actions, not only exposure to volcanic material when an eruption occurs, but also mitigating cold lava flood disasters that have the potential to occur when the peaks are hit by rain.

The results of mapping disaster-prone zones carried out by the Geological Agency team showed that at least the Dulipali area, Padang Pasir, Nobo, Klatanlo, Hokeng Jaya, Boru, Nawakote, which was quite at risk of being affected by cold lava floods because it intersected directly with the river flow on Mount Lewotobi.

He added that the Geological Agency also recommended that people around Mount Lewotobi Laki or tourists do not carry out any activities within a radius of 6 kilometers from the southwest-northwest eruption and sectoral center as far as 7 kilometers after their status was raised to Level IV (Awas) as of Thursday morning.