400 YEARS OLD DORMANT MOUNT SINABUNG IN INDONESIA ERUPTS

Sunday started with a shock for the Indonesians as Mount Sinabung erupted after 400 years. This dormant volcano situated in the North Sumatran province erupted on Sunday just after 12:15 a.m. (1:15 p.m. ET Saturday) according to the official Antara news agency.

• Surano, the head of the country’s volcanology and geology agency told that as the volcano was inactive since 1600 they really do not have much info on its character. But he goes on to state that in spite of the volcano being dormant for so long it threw up ashes nearly a mile in the air after it erupted
• As of now there are no injuries or causalities. The officials have already evacuated 12,000 residents living near the high risk areas in 14 villages and moved them to temporary shelters.
• Priyadi Kardono a member from National Disaster Management told that the teams of emergency response are already on the scene and the situation is under control. Health Ministry has distributed face masks and has kept health posts on standby, Mudjiarto, the head of the health ministry’s crisis centre told.
• Surano has said the volcano has been placed on the red level, the highest alert in Indonesia, it has been rumbling for several days. The eruption was followed by spewing of lava that burnt down the trees in the mount slopes. The thick smoke went up to 1,500 metres and the visibility was brought down to only five metres.

The nearest big city to the volcano is Medan, till now no flights or traffic has been disrupted. Neither hazardous gas has been detected. According to the researchers a large eruption is unlikely based on the data they have but they are still studying and monitoring the volcano.
Indonesia is located on the Pacific RiBG of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geological fault lines surrounding the Pacific basin. It makes the places situated in that region likely to be affected with volcanos and earthquakes.

*The Pacific rim "Ring of Fire". Most of the region's seismic events are small and occur under the sea, where the majority of the continental plate margins are found. According to the US Geological Survey, which studies seismic activity, there has been an average of 19.4 quakes of 7.0-plus strength on the Ring each year. "Big quakes like these happen all the time -- they only become news when they happen in places with large populations," said Quake expert Gary Gibson.
Source: ENSNN