Indonesia’s Anak Krakatoa volcano erupted on Friday, spewing a 3,000-meter-high column of ash in the biggest eruption since the 2018 tsunami that killed 430 people.
The Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation stated on its website that the volcano erupted in 56 seconds at 08:46 (01:46 in Lisbon).
The explosion was preceded by another, about an hour earlier, of less intensity, which sent clouds of smoke and ash 957 meters high, lasting more than 13 minutes.
The volcano, whose activity is classified by the center as level 3, the second highest on a scale of four, had already registered several small eruptions on Thursday and Tuesday.
Due to the greater activity of the volcano, located in the strait that separates the islands of Sumatra and Java and whose summit rises to 157 meters above sea level, the authorities have created a security radius of five kilometers.
The eruption on December 22, 2018 caused the partial collapse of the mountain cone, causing a tsunami off the coasts of Sumatra and Java that killed 430 people and injured some 14,000, according to official data.
Discovered in 1927, Anak Krakatoa, which means “Son of Krakatoa”, rose from the waters more than half a century after the destruction of the mythical volcano Krakatoa, in a monumental eruption in 1883, which killed more than 36,000 people and unleashed a Global cooling period.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic and volcanic activity that is shaken each year by around 7,000 earthquakes, the vast majority of them moderate.
Source: TSF
