Volcanic activity

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 1 October 1999

43

Keywords

Citation

(1999), "Volcanic activity", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308dac.004

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited


Volcanic activity

Volcanic activity

20 July 1998 - Mount Merapi, Indonesia

Keywords: Volcanoes

Authorities fearing an eruption evacuated more than 6,000 people at the weekend (18-19 July) from the slopes of Indonesia's most active volcano, Mount Mecapi, the Kompas daily reported today. The evacuation of the residents of eight villages, the first during Merapi's recent bout of activity, was ordered by local disaster co-ordination authorities despite the volcano still being rated one level below the maximum alert status, Kompas said. Village authorities said they arranged the evacuation of people to nearby village meeting halls after hearing automatic sirens that are designed to raise the alarm when the volcano's activity reaches a certain point. "We heard the siren and the people immediately moved", the secretary of the Dukun sub-district, Sujarwo, was quoted as saying. Seven trucks were then used to move people from the isolated villages, he said. Kompas quoted vulcanologists in nearby Yogyakarta as saying the alert status of Merapi was not being changed despite it frequently emitting clouds of hot gas, which reach as high as 16,000 feet above the mountain's 9,738 foot peak. The official Antara news agency said today that Merapi's activity had entered a critical phase yesterday as it spewed out clouds of hot gas as high as 26,000 feet. Residents around the volcano have reported thick dust falling on their villages with some closest to the peak saying the dust had reached a thickness of one centimetre. Ace Purbawinata, the Head of Centre for Research and Development of Volcanic Technology (BPPTK) in Yogyakarta, was quoted by Antara as asking local residents to stop quarrying sand in the Lamat river.

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