Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesian officials lowered the alert level of a distant volcano that erupted multiple times in the past week. Also, the closest international airport resumed operations after being closed for several days.
Authorities had cautioned that the danger from the Mount Ruang stratovolcano in Indonesia’s farthest region was not yet over after it led to the evacuation of thousands with its dramatic mix of lava, ash columns, and lightning last week.
However, volcanic activity has since subsided at the crater, and the country’s volcanology agency reduced the alert level to the second-highest in a four-tiered system on Monday.
“Based on the results of visual and instrumental monitoring, which indicate a decrease in volcanic activity on Mt. Ruang, the status level… has been lowered from Level IV to Level III,” said volcanology agency head Hendra Gunawan in a statement.
The agency decreased the exclusion zone from six to four kilometers (3.5 to 2.5 miles).
Sam Ratulangi international airport in the provincial capital of Manado, located more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the crater, reopened on Monday afternoon, officials reported.
This followed several days of closure at the airport, which is used by some airlines flying to Singapore, South Korea, and China, due to volcanic ash.
Over 6,000 residents of neighboring Tagulandang island, home to about 20,000 people, were evacuated from the exclusion zone since the eruptions began, but no injuries or deaths were reported.
Indonesia, a large nation of islands, frequently experiences seismic and volcanic activity due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.
Agence France-Presse
