Thick White Smoke Appears, TGNPP Ensures Mount Gede Has Normal Status, No Eruption

CIANJUR - Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park Center (TNGGP) noted that there was no activity that led to the eruption or eruption of Mount Gede as a video circulated on social media related to the crater of Mount Gede which emitted thick white smoke.

Public Relations of the TNGGP Center, Agus Deni, said that in Mount Gede there are three Wadon craters, Ratu Crater, and Lanang Crater, while the crater that emits white smoke is the Wadon Crater.

"Gunung Gede is a volcano that is still active with normal status, until now there has been no activity that leads to an eruption or eruption," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, July 15.

He explained that the three craters in the mountain often emit smoke and are often clearly visible from the Cibodas area, so that it has become a normal sight because the status of Mount Gede is still normal, but a number of restrictions are applied.

Climbers are asked to remain vigilant and not approach the Wadon Crater within a radius of 600 meters because it is feared that it will emit toxic gases that are harmful to living things, not because of increased activity.

"We always coordinate with the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) of the Ministry of Mineral Resources Energy (ESDM) in monitoring the activities of Mount Gede," he said.

Even some time ago, his party together with PVBMG installed a number of monitoring tools spread across several locations around the Gede volcano, such as Seismometer, GPS, Tiltmeter, Infrasound, and Microtic Radio.

Including in making videos circulating on social media, Andrea Ramadhan and the BBTNGGP team made to get a clearer picture of the crater situation with a long range drone or fpv so that they can get a closer look at the target.

"The image in the video shows the activity of the crater of Mount Gede and contains various comments, one of which speculates that regarding the existence of a new crater on Mount Gede, the TNGGP Center stated that there was no new crater, but the crater that emitted smoke was confirmed by the Wadon crater," he said.

He asked the public to remain calm and ensure that every information obtained directly from the source, so as not to become unrest, especially those living at the foot of Mount Gede, which is divided into three districts, Cianjur, Bogor and Sukabumi.

"We also ask the public, climbers and tourists not to go down, approach and spend the night in the Mount Gede Crater within a radius of 600 meters from the Wadon Crater," he said.