Status Of Mount Semeru Still Alert, People Are Called Not To Come Close

Mount Semeru (doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Volcanic activity on Mount Semeru is still happening. Although not continuous, the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) said the status of Mount Semeru was still at level II or alert.

"The eruption occurred not continuously with the eruption column not being observed because it was generally covered in fog over the past week," said the Head of the PVMBG West Region Volcano Mitigation Sub-Division, Nia Haerani, as quoted by Antara, Tuesday, December 15.

According to him, the activities of Mount Semeru during 7-13 December 2020 were still fluctuating, it was observed that the main crater was white smoke with a thin intensity, about 100 meters high from the peak.

"Hot clouds were observed falling with a sliding distance of 1.5 to 3.5 kilometers from the summit, the direction of the glide to the southeast (Besuk Kobokan)," he said.

He explained that the incandescent lava avalanche was observed with a glide distance of 400 to 500 meters from the peak and the direction of the southeast slide (Besuk Kobokan).

The seismograph also recorded 128 eruptive earthquakes, 2 hot cloud avalanches, 92 avalanches, 45 gusts, 25 harmonic tremors, 1 deep volcanic earthquake, 1 local tectonic earthquake, 19 distant tectonic earthquakes, and 10 times the earthquake, the vibration of the flood.

Based on the monitoring post report, the activity of Mount Semeru during the observation period on Tuesday (15 December 2020) at 00.00 - 06.00 WIB visually Mount fog and crater smoke were not observed.

"The smoke eruption, visually unobserved puffs of smoke because the mountains are mostly covered in fog," he said.

For seismic activity, there were four eruptions, two avalanches, one puff, and four harmonic tremors.

For that, he continued, PVMBG appealed to the public not to do activities within a radius of 1 km from the crater / peak of Mount Semeru and a distance of 4 km from the direction of the crater opening in the south-southeast sector, and to be aware of hot clouds of avalanche, lava avalanches, and lava along the river. the valley that starts at the top of Mount Semeru.

People are advised to stay away or not to do activities in areas affected by hot cloud material because currently the temperature is still high and they need to be aware of the potential for glides along the valley of the Besuk Kobokan hot cloud path.

"The public is asked to be aware of the threat of lava in the river / valley channels that head up at Mount Semeru considering the large amount of volcanic material that has been formed," he said.