INDONESIA ON TSUNAMI RISK ALERT

AFTER ERUPTION OF THE RUANG VOLCANO

The volcano threw a cloud of ash more than a kilometer high into the sky, which could “compromise flight safety”. Manado international airport, although located more than 100 kilometers from the eruption, was therefore closed Wednesday evening for 24 hours. The crater of the volcano ignited and spewed lava during the night from Wednesday to Thursday and, this morning, it was still releasing a column of smoke.

The authorities, who raised the alert level to the highest on a scale of four, announced the evacuation of 11,000 people in the area closest to Ruang. This particularly concerns the island of Tagulandang, which has around 20,000 inhabitants and to which more than 800 people living on the neighboring volcanic island were displaced after the first eruption. The instruction is to keep a distance of at least six kilometers from the volcano. A caution which does not allay all fears, since the threat of a tsunami is now worrying the authorities.

On Wednesday, the director of the Indonesian Volcanology Agency, Hendra Gunawan, explained that "residents of Tagulandang Island, especially those who reside near the beach, should be on alert for the risk of incandescent rock projections , fiery clouds and tsunami caused by the collapse of the mass of the volcano into the sea.

In 2018, the partial collapse of the crater of the Anak Krakatoa volcano, located between the islands of Java and Sumatra, triggered a tsunami and led to the death of 400 people.