Mt Sinabung eruption, Sunday, September 15, 2013

Mt Sinabung in Sumatra has erupted around 3 am on Sunday, September 15, 2013 dusting ash up to 50 kilometers from the volcano, prompting evacuations of thousands of people living near the volcano. There were no sign of increased earthquakes prior to the eruption; however, PVMBG (Indonesia’s volcano monitoring agency) mentioned a small (~150 m) plume from the volcano along with a few hundred small earthquakes since mid August.

The PVMBG has raised the alert status at Sinabung to Level III (of IV) due to this new activity; an evacuation zone of ~3 km has been set up around the volcano.

The characteristics of the 2,460-m volcano's eruptions are relatively unknown because it has been quiet for over 400 years before the eruption in 2010. The eruptions during 2010 was unexpected because the volcano was not even being monitored as potentially active volcano at the time.

There is a webcam pointed at Sinabung maintained by PVMBG, which can be accessed through this link.

Mt Sinabung eruption September 2013 (Photo source: Tempo)

Birds flee as the volcano rumbling September 15, 2013 (Photo source: Tempo)