Super Heated Gas Clouds raise Indonesian volcano alert
Pastor Dale Morgan
Super Heated Gas Clouds raise Indonesian volcano alert*
JAKARTA, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2008
Indonesia raised the alert level on the tallest volcano on Java island
Thursday after it spewed Super Heated Gas Clouds down its slopes, the
volcanology office said
The alert level of Mount Semeru was lifted to "be prepared," two levels
below eruption, when observers reported seeing the massive heat clouds
on Wednesday, it said.
"It happened six times and the longest was 3,000 metres (1.8 miles)
long," an observer on the slopes of the volcano told AFP by phone.
He said that activity at the 3,676-metre high volcano in East Java was
not considered dangerous as only one volcanic earthquake had been
registered and the nearest village was 10 kilometres away.
The Indonesian archipelago sits on the seismically active Pacific "Ring
of Fire" where continental plates collide, and is home to about 130
active volcanoes.