Every day, for several months, modest plumes of ash formed above the northwest summit of this volcano, itself made up of two distinct and adjacent buildings: Laki-Laki, which is active at the moment, and Perempuan in the southeast, or in Indonesian, “husband” and “wife” respectively.
In recent days, however, seismicity had increased inside the volcano and the plumes of ash were a little more imposing. And then, there was no more explosion from the 1is November, undoubtedly a sign of a superficial blockage preventing the release of the gazgaz. All of these observations pushed the volcanologuesvolcanologues locals to raise the alert level to 4 at midnight on the night of November 3 to 4, accompanied by a prohibited access zone with a radius from the summit of the volcano extended from 3.5 to 7 kilometers.
Unfortunately, this measure was too late, because at the same time, precisely at 11:57 p.m., a powerful explosion formed a plume of ash which reached an altitude of 12.2 kilometers, or more than 10 kilometers high! Fist-sized volcanic projections fell on certain villages located more than 4 kilometers from the crater and at least one pyroclastic flow also appears to have formed. The provisional toll is significant: at least 10 victims, numerous houses destroyed, 5 villages evacuated for around 10,000 inhabitants…
House on fire and fallout from volcanic projections in a village several kilometers from the volcano!
Damage caused by activity during the night of November 3 to 4, 2024.
An eruption that has lasted for several months!
The eruption of this volcano began on December 23, 2023, with broadcastsbroadcasts of fairly significant ashes which pushed some inhabitants from themselves. Then, from January 9, volcanic activity intensified and 6,500 people were evacuated. Probable lava fountains, ash emissions, avalanches, short fiery clouds and, in addition to this intense activity, effusive activity began that day.
The lava overflowed from the summit crater and formed a viscous flow towards the east-northeast which, at a vitessevitesse average of 10 m/h, reached around 4 km in a fortnight. It progressed another 500 m at the beginning of February, then stopped. For its part, the explosive activity remained sustained for a few days after January 9. Then, it gradually decreased to become quite modest and stable, although sometimes the ash fall still forced some local airports to close for a few days.
It is currently impossible to know whether this intense activity will last. However, the associated risks will persist for some time for these villages, as the saisonsaison rains begin in Flores and with it, mudslides could cause other disasters.
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