Mount Semeru Outburst in Indonesia Triggers Evacuations

Indonesia's Semeru volcano, the highest peak on Java island, has erupted, covering several villages with falling ash, leading to evacuations and causing officials to elevate the alert to the maximum level.

The volcano in the province of East Java released searing clouds of fiery ash and a mixture of stone, molten rock, and gases that moved up to 7km down its sides several times from midday to evening, while a dense plume of fiery clouds rose 2km into the air, as stated by Indonesia’s Geology Agency.

The eruptions that occurred throughout the day compelled officials to raise the volcano’s alert level on two occasions, from the level three to the highest, the authority said. No casualties have been announced.

Over three hundred residents in the three villages most at risk in the district of Lumajang region were evacuated to official safe havens, according to a representative for the national emergency management body.

He said that heightened volcanic movements of the volcano on the afternoon of Wednesday led authorities to expand the hazard area to 8km from the crater. People were advised to stay clear from an area along the Kobokan River, which is the path of the molten rock stream, as searing gas flowed down Semeru’s slopes.

Videos on online platforms showed a dense cloud of ash moving through a forested valley to a river beneath a overpass. Residents, some with faces covered with volcanic dust and water, escaped to temporary shelters or left for alternative secure locations.

Local media indicated that emergency teams were facing challenges to save about 178 people trapped on the 3,676-metre mountain at the Ranu Kumbolo monitoring post. The group comprised 137 climbers, 15 carriers, seven escorts and six travel representatives, according to an spokesperson with the national park.

“They remain secure at the Ranu Kumbolo station,” an official stated in a recorded message. He noted the station was located 4.5km from the summit on the northern slope of the mountain, which is outside the trajectory of the fiery cloud movement that was observed traveling to the southeast direction. Inclement conditions and precipitation forced the team to spend the night there, he explained.

Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the last two centuries. However, as is the situation with many of the 129 live volcanoes in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its productive highlands.

Semeru’s last major eruption was in December 2021, when 51 people were killed and hundreds others were injured and settlements were submerged in thick mud. The event forced the evacuation of over ten thousand people from their homes.

The country, an archipelago of more than 280 million inhabitants, is located along the Pacific “ring of fire”, a horseshoe-shaped series of tectonic boundaries, and is susceptible to earthquakes and volcanism.