Eruption of Indonesia’s Mt. Ibu Forces Villages to Evacuate in Maluku Island

Mount Ibu volcano has spectacularly erupted, spewing a grey ash cloud into the sky, and people from seven nearby villages have been evacuated, Indonesian authorities said on Sunday. A four-kilometer-high volcanic ash cloud formed by the eruption of Mount Ibu Saturday night triggered flashes of lightning that illuminated the volcano's peak, said Indonesian news agency Antara. "The sound of rumbling and roaring was heard up to the Mount Ibu observation post with lightning seen in the eruption column," an officer at the observation post, Richard Chaniago, informed. The eruption was recorded on a seismogram, with a maximum amplitude of 28 millimeters and a duration of approximately 9 minutes and 12 seconds, he said. A joint team comprised of police, military, and search and rescue officials was dispatched to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, said the disaster mitigation agency in a statement. The agency did not provide any information about how many people had been moved, but authoriti es have recommended that a seven-km (4.35-mile) radius be cleared. Indonesia's volcanology agency raised the alert level of the volcano to the highest level on Thursday, after Ibu erupted multiple times earlier this month. Ibu's activities follow a series of eruptions of different volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has 127 active volcanoes. Source: Qatar News Agency