Indonesia: Mount Ibu erupted at least 1,000 times this month

(Keystone-ATS) Mount Ibu, located on the island of Halmahera in the North Moluccas province, to the east of the vast archipelago, erupted on Wednesday, sending a column of smoke four kilometers high into the sky.

The Indonesian Geological Agency therefore raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest threshold in its system of four, leading local authorities to call on the 3,000 residents living nearby to evacuate.

It was one of 1,079 eruptions of the volcano recorded by the Indonesian Geological Agency since January 1, with columns reaching heights of between 0.3 and 4 kilometers above its summit, according to data from the agency collected by AFP.

The last big eruption took place on Sunday at 1:15 a.m. local time (5:15 p.m. Swiss time) and released smoke 1.5km high.

“The ash was gray, of moderate to heavy intensity, and drifting southwest. A loud rumbling sound was heard as far as the Mount Ibu observation post,” the Agency said in a statement on Sunday.

The volcano erupted 17 times on Sunday alone according to the same source.

Around 500 residents of the village closest to the volcano have been evacuated since Wednesday evening, while thousands of others have refused.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

The volcanic activity of Mount Ibu, on an island where some 700,000 inhabitants live, has accelerated since June, after a series of earthquakes. The volcano having erupted nine times since the start of 2025.

Residents living nearby and tourists were urged to avoid a five- to six-kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano’s summit and to wear masks in case of ashfall.

Last November, Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, on the tourist island of Flores, about 800 km from Bali, erupted more than a dozen times in a week, killing nine and injuring 31 and forcing 11 ‘000 people to be evacuated.