PGA Claims Three Times There Has Been Theft Of The Marapi Monitoring Station Since 2022

JAKARTA - Mount Marapi Volcano Post (PGA) officer Teguh Purnomo said that since 2022 until now there have been at least three thefts of volcanic activity monitoring equipment (stasiun) in Agam Regency and Tanah Datar Regency, West Sumatra.

"From 2022 we recorded that approximately three have lost monitoring tools for the activities of Mount Marapi that were stolen," said PGA Gunung Marapi officer Teguh Purnomo in Bukittinggi City, Sunday.

Teguh said that of the three incidents, the most frequent monitoring station batteries were stolen. As a result, the tool automatically does not work so that data monitoring from the east or south of Mount Marapi is very minimal.

Luckily, PGA still has a monitoring station at another point that functions to record and supply data when other stations are lost, damaged or stolen. In general, PGA installed nine monitoring stations spread across a number of areas.

According to him, the installation of nine station points around Mount Marapi is quite ideal because it covers all sides of the wind's eye. The installation is expected to record all volcanic activity that comes from all sides, especially recording the volcanic activity of the Verbeek Crater or the main magma kitchen of Mount Marapi.

"So, these nine monitoring station points are ideal enough to monitor volcanic activity," said Teguh.

He said the nine installed equipment included a seismograph that functions as a recorder or detector of earthquake vibrations and volcanic vibrations originating from magma pressure rising to the surface from the magma kitchen.

Then, including deformation equipment in the form of a tiltmeter which generally functions to monitor pressure from inside a magma kitchen. Simply put, when there is magma pressure, the mountain will expand and this tool will record data. In addition, the tiltmeter also records data when there is deflation or message indicating that the supply of magma is starting to decrease.