West Sumatra BKSDA: Mount Marapi Nature Tourism Park Area Still Closed

An officer observed from a distance from the eruption of Mount Marapi which is located in Agam Regency and Tanah Datar Regency. (ANTARA/Muhammad Zulfikar).

The Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) of West Sumatra Province (West Sumatra) has confirmed that until now it has not opened the Mount Marapi climbing route after the decline in status from level III (standby) to level II (alert). "The Gunung Marapi Nature Tourism Park area is still closed," said Head of the West Sumatra Province BKSDA Lugi Hartanto in Padang, Antara, Wednesday, July 3. Therefore, the West Sumatra Province BKSDA asked the public, including visitors or tourists, to continue to comply with the ban on climbing of Mount Marapi for safety aspects. Moreover, after the decline in status from level III to level II on Monday (1/7), the 2.891 meter volcano above sea level (masl) erupted again on Tuesday morning (2/7) at 01.33 WIB "So, we urge the public not to carry out any activities, including climbing visits to Mount Marapi because there is still an eruption," said the Head of the West Sumatra BKSDA. The prohibition of climbing and activities is in line with a number of recommendations from the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) which prohibits people around mountains, climbers, visitors, tourists from entering or doing activities within a radius of three kilometers from the activity center (Verbeek Luxury). On that occasion, the BKSDA again reminded people who live around the slopes of the mountain, especially on the banks of rivers that originate from Mount Marapi regarding the potential threat of cold lava, especially during the rainy season. Based on a report from the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, a number of activities of Mount Marapi from June 23 to 30, 2024, including seismicity dominated by earthquake gusts, while earthquake eruptions or eruptions were recorded to be low.

In full, two earthquake eruptions, 26 earthquake gusts, two shallow volcanic earthquakes, six deep volcanic earthquakes, 25 local tectonic earthquakes, 17 distant tectonic earthquakes, and continuous tremors with an amplitude of 0.5-2 millimeters (mm). Likewise, the coherence value that reflects the current condition of the lower surface medium has a high value (around 0.8) which shows that the medium condition near the surface of Mount Marapi's body has returned to normal. Prior to the eruption in January 2023 and December 2023, the values of dv/v and coherence also decreased.