Geological Agency: Mount Lewotolok Activities In NTT Are Still High

Mount Ile Lewotolok in Lembata Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). (ANTARA/HO-PVMBG.)

LABUAN BAJO - Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) stated, based on instrumental monitoring data on Mount Ile Lewotolok in Lembata Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), it shows high seismicity and visuality.

"The level of activity of Mount Ile Lewotolok is still at Level II (Alert)," said Head of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Muhammad Wafid in a statement received in Labuan Bajo, Antara, Sunday, January 5.

The results of visual observations in the period 1-31 December 2024, white main crater smoke was observed with a thin to high intensity of about 5-400 meters from the summit. The weather was sunny to rainy, the wind was weak to strong to the north, northeast, east, southeast, west, and northwest.

Furthermore, on January 1-4, 2024, white main crater smoke was observed with a thin to thick intensity of about 10-100 meters from the summit.

"The weather is sunny to the rain, the wind is weak to the east, southeast, west, and northwest," he said.

On January 5, 2025, white to gray main crater smoke was observed with moderate high intensity reaching 20-100 meters from the summit, weak winds to the southeast.

Meanwhile, the results of observations of the earthquake of Mount Ili Lewotolok on December 1-31, 2024, were recorded as many as 394 gusts, one Tornillo earthquake, one hybrid earthquake, 43 times Shallow Volcanic earthquake, 183 times Deep Volcanic earthquake, 48 times Local Tectonic earthquake, and 50 times Remote Tectonic earthquake, and one earthquake was felt on an MMI scale.

Furthermore, on January 1-4, 2024, 44 earthquakes of gusts were recorded, three Shallow Volcanic earthquakes, eight Internal Volcanic earthquakes, six local Tectonic earthquakes and eight distant Tectonic earthquakes.

Then on January 5, 2024 to 12.00 WITA, nine gusts were recorded, one Shallow Volcanic earthquake, one Deep Volcanic earthquake, one Local Tectonic earthquake and one Remote Tectonic earthquake.

Wafid also said that in general, there was an increase in activity in the crater in the form of white to gray smoke gusts from the previous white only.

"This change in smoke color indicates material from inside the crater or crater wall that was carried away when the gusts occurred," said Wafid.

He also explained that based on the results of instrumental observations, until January 5, 2024, seismic data showed that gust earthquakes still dominated activity, but a significant increase occurred for Shallow Volcanic and Deep Volcanic earthquakes during December 2024 which reached 43 times and 183 times.

The daily average for the Shallow Volcanic earthquake is only one incident per day and the Volcanic Earthquake is in the range of 1-5 events per day.

"The emergence of the Shallow and Volcanic Volcanic earthquakes In this case indicates a significant increase in pressure or stress on the body of Mount Ili Lewotolok, which is related to the supply of shallow and deep magmatics," he said.

Furthermore, this increase in seismic activity has not been significantly observed from deformation data, such as the results of deformation observations with the Tiltmeter method, which shows a slowly or small change in Tilt.

"Similarly, distance measurements with the EDM (Electronic Distance Measurement) show that there is a slight decoupling of the Tilt value indicating changes in inflationary deformation or convexity in the body of Mount IIi Lewotolok which is not yet significant," he said.