Fresh alert in Indonesia, danger zone widened

CARITA,INDONESIA:INDONESIA raised the danger level for an island volcano that triggered a tsunami on the weekend, killing at least 430 people in Sumatra and Java, and widened its no-go zone.

The country’s volcanology agency said on Thursday that the Anak Krakatau volcano’s alert status had been raised to the second highest level and the exclusion zone more than doubled to a 5km radius. Several flights had to be re-routed on Thursday.

The eruption on Saturday evening caused part of the island in the Sunda Strait to collapse into the sea, generating tsunami waves of more than two metres.

Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes.

The government has warned communities in the strait to stay 1km away from the coastline because of the risk of another tsunami triggered by Krakatau’s ongoing eruptions.

A navy vessel is expected to pass by the island, which could give scientists more information about the risks of a second collapse.

“There’s still a chance of a landslide, even under the sea level or on the sea level,” said Rudy Sunendar, head of the energy ministry’s geology department.

“We don’t know exactly because we are not yet gone to the field” due to bad weather, he told AP at the volcano’s monitoring post. “Based on the satellite imagery interpretation, there is collapse of some area of Mount Anak Krakatau.”

Saturday’s disaster struck without warning, taking people by surprise in a country that regularly suffers landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

No big earthquake shook the ground beforehand, and the waves surged inland at night on a holiday weekend while people were enjoying concerts and other beach and resort activities.

Indonesia’s tsunami warning system relies on land seismometers and buoys connected to tidal gauges and is not equipped to detect underwater landslides. The system, in any case, has not operated for years because the buoys have been vandalised or not maintained because of low funding.