Indonesia’s Mount Ruang erupts again, spewing ash and peppering villages with debris

For the second time in two weeks, Indonesia’s Mount Ruang volcano erupted on Tuesday, sending ash almost two kilometers (more than a mile) upwards, shutting an airport and sprinkling surrounding communities with debris.

The Indonesian Geological Service upped the volcano’s warning level to the highest level once again on Sulawesi Island after sensors detected an increase in volcanic activity. The organization advised locals and climbers to keep a minimum of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) distance from the volcano’s crater.

The North Sulawesi province’s 725-meter (2,378-foot) volcano is located around 95 kilometers (59 miles) northeast of Manado, the provincial capital, via Sam Ratulangi International Airport.

According to Ambar Suryoko, the director of the regional airport authority, the airport was closed early on Tuesday because of poor visibility and the ash’s potential to damage airplane engines.

In towns and cities around the area, including Manado, a metropolis of over 430,000 people, drivers were forced to turn on their headlights throughout the day as ash, grit, and debris dropped from the sky.

The leader of the Mount Ruang monitoring site, Yulius Ramopolii, described the situation as “dark with rocks raining at the post from the eruption.” “The glass windows and everything around us were shaken by the strong vibrations that knocked out power.”

He said that the explosion scattered falling debris across numerous towns and obscured the light. According to Ramopolii, no casualties have been recorded.

When officials warned that a big eruption may collapse part of the volcano into the sea and generate a tsunami that might damage adjacent towns, more than 11,000 people had fled after the eruption on April 17.

After four days, the authorities reopened the airport and dropped its alert level from four to the second highest, leaving less than 3,000 people in makeshift shelters.

On Tuesday, the Indonesian Geological Agency issued a warning to residents of Tagulandang Island, particularly those living close to the shore, about the possibility of heated volcanic clouds and a tsunami brought on by debris erupting into the sea or a volcanic dome collapsing into the ocean.

Ruang is one of Indonesia’s around 130 active volcanoes. Because of its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a network of fault lines that runs from the western coastlines of the Americas to Japan and Southeast Asia, the archipelagic country is vulnerable to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.