Lumajang Residents And Night Asked To Be Alert, Mount Semeru Erupts Thursday Morning

Eruption of Mount Semeru. (Doc PVMBG)

Mount Semeru, which is on the border of Lumajang and Malang regencies, East Java, erupted with an eruption as high as 400 meters above the peak on Thursday, February 6 morning.

"There was an eruption of Mount Semeru on Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 07.26 WIB with an eruption column height observed about 400 meters above the peak or 4,076 meters above sea level," said Mount Semeru Observation Post Officer Ghufron Alwi, quoted by ANTARA.

The ash column of Mount Semeru was observed to be white to gray with thick intensity to the west. The eruption was recorded on a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 22 mm and a duration of 105 seconds.

Based on officers' records, the highest mountain on the island of Java was recorded to have experienced an eruption seven times on Thursday from 00.16 WIB to 07.26 WIB, but visually the eruption was not observed and the eruption was observed once in the seventh eruption.

He explained that Mount Semeru is still on Alert status, so the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) provides a number of recommendations, namely that people are prohibited from carrying out any activity in the southeast sector along Besuk Kobokan as far as eight kilometers from the summit (the center of the eruption).

Beyond that distance, he continued, people are not allowed to carry out activities at a distance of 500 meters from the riverbank (river border) along Besuk Kobokan, because it has the potential to be affected by the expansion of hot clouds and lava flows up to a distance of 13 kilometers from the summit.

"People are also not allowed to move within a radius of 3 kilometers from the crater/peak of Mount Semeru, because they are prone to the dangers of throwing incandescent stones," he said.

In addition, he said, the public also needs to be aware of the potential for hot clouds, lava avalanches, and rain lava along rivers/valleys that originate at the top of Mount Semeru, especially along Besuk Kobokan, Besuk Bang, Besuk Kembar, and Besuk Sat, as well as the potential for lava in small rivers that are tributaries from Besuk Kobokan.