Airport close to volcano reopens as level of eruption warning in Indonesia is lowered

On Monday, Indonesian officials reduced the level of alert and reopened an international airport close to a volcano that erupted last week.

Since Thursday, the Sam Ratulangi airport has been closed owing to Mount Ruang’s surrounding eruptions.

The volcano’s warning level was reduced from four, the second-highest level, to three by Indonesia’s Disaster Management Agency, although locals were still advised to stay at least four kilometers (2.7 miles) away from the peak.

Since Thursday, almost 3,000 locals have been evacuated because of threats such as falling boulders, ash, heated volcanic clouds, and tsunami worries. The settlements around the volcano were searched by a combined team of local authorities, and inhabitants were evacuated by boat.

Small-scale eruptions might still pose a threat, resulting in rock falls and other destruction in the volcano’s near vicinity.

When satellite footage revealed that rains had removed the volcanic ash covering the tarmac, officials decided to operate the airport.

There are 120 active volcanoes in the 270 million-person archipelago of Indonesia. Because of its location in the “Ring of Fire,” a network of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Ocean in the form of a horseshoe, it is vulnerable to volcanic activity.