Evaluation Results Of Mount Marapi Activities, PVMBG: Volcanic Activities Are Still High

Sightings of Mount Marapi located in Agam Regency and Tanah Datar Regency. (Doc. BETWEEN/Muhammad Zulfikar)

The results of the evaluation related to the activity of Mount Marapi as high as 2,891 meters above sea level (MDPL) in Agam Regency and Tanah Datar Regency have just been submitted by the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG).

"Pascaerupsi utama pada 3 Desember 2023, rupsi-erupsi berikutnya masih berlanjut dengan jumlah harian yang cenderung menurun secara fluktuasi," kata Kepala PVMBG Hendra Gunawan melalui keterangan tertulisnya yang diterima di Padang, dilansir ANTARA, Sabtu, 3 Februari.

Since January 25, 2024, PVMBG has recorded no recorded eruption activity or earthquakes. However, on the same day activity / gusts were recorded 49 times and is the highest number ever recorded after the main eruption on December 3, 2023.

Then, continued Hendra, since January 26, 2024, earthquake gusts have decreased drastically to date. Low frequency earthquakes are still recorded intensively, the highest number of events recorded on January 23, 2024, reaching 17 times after that, tends to decline.

He said that many hybrid/phase earthquakes began to be recorded on January 24, 2024. This earthquake tends to rise until January 27 which reached 17 times and after that it tends to decline. In general, hybrid earthquakes are usually related to the formation and growth of lava domes from within the crater.

Not only that, PVMBG reports that shallow volcanic earthquakes (VBs) were quite intensive, namely being recorded the highest on January 23, 2024, which reached 27 incidents and after that decreased. Furthermore, deep volcanic earthquakes (VAs) are still recorded intensively with fluctuating daily numbers.

The next evaluation, PVMBG noted that local tectonic earthquake activity around Mount Marapi was still happening and showed a fluctuating tendency to increase. The emission rate data (flux) of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas from the Sentinel satellite in the past week was lower than the previous month.

"However, the current value of the gas flux is still quite high, indicating that there is still the release of SO2 gas from magma which is recorded at 678 tons per day on January 30, 2024," explained Hendra.

Not only that, the supply of magma from depth is still indicated by the recording of low frequency, shallow volcanic, and deep volcanic earthquakes. Therefore, Mount Marapi's volcanic activity is considered still high.