Indonesian Geological Agency Raises Mount Semeru's Status to Level Alert

Jakarta, MINA – The Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) raisee the status of Mount Semeru in Lumajang Regency, East Java, to Alert or Level 3.

“The activity level of Mount Semeru has been raised from Alert level 2 to Alert Level 3 starting December 16, 2021 at 11.00 p.m ,” said the Head of Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Eko Budi Lelono in a statement in Jakarta on Friday as quoted from Republika.

He appealed to the public not to carry out activities in the southeast sector along Besuk Kobokan as far as 13 kilometers (km) from the top of the mountain. Outside this distance, people are not allowed to carry out activities at a distance of 500 meters from the river bank along Besuk Kobokan because it has the potential to be affected by the expansion of hot clouds and lava flows up to a distance of 17 km from the top of the mountain.

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“In addition, the public is also not allowed to enter and cannot move within a five kilometer radius of the crater or peak of Mount Semeru because it is prone to the danger of throwing stones (incandescent),” said Eko.

On Thursday, at around 09.01 a.m, another hot cloud slide occurred 4.5 km from the summit. The hot cloud incident was recorded by a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 25 millimeters and a duration of 912 seconds.

Then, another hot cloud slide occurred at 09.30 a.m. The hot cloud incident was recorded by a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 17 millimeters and a duration of 395 seconds. However, it is not visually observable because Mount Semeru is covered in fog.

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In the afternoon, there was a hot cloud slide at 03:42 p.m as far as 4.5 kilometers from the peak. The hot cloud event was recorded by a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 20 millimeters and a duration of 400 seconds.

Based on seismic observations, it was observed that tremors were dominated by earthquake eruptions, gusts, and avalanches with the number of avalanches increasing in the last three days by 15-73 events per day from an average of eight events per day since December 1, 2021.

“Deep volcanic earthquakes and tremors harmonics occur in insignificant amounts,” said Eko.

Meanwhile, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) estimates that the rainy season will continue for the next three months. Secondary explosions also have the potential to occur along river flows if the hot clouds that occur enter or come in contact with river water. (T/RE1)