Hanoi (VNA) - Mount Ibu on Halmahera island in North Maluku province of Indonesia erupted again on May 27, spewing a 6-km cloud of ash westwards into the sky.
According to local authorities, the eruption occurred at 03:30 am local time and sent sand falling onto surrounding areas.
People have been warned not to enter an exclusion zone of between 4-7 kilometres from the volcano, which has erupted at least 95 times since early this year.
Ibu is one of Indonesia's most active volcanos, erupting more than 21,000 times in 2023. Indonesian authorities on May 16 raised the alert level for Mount Ibu to the highest (Level 4) following a series of eruptions.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 127 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire”, a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
Last month, Mount Ruang in North Sulawesi province erupted more than half a dozen times, forcing thousands of residents of nearby islands to evacuate. It remains at the highest alert level. All of the 800 residents of Ruang island will be permanently relocated./.
Indonesia’s Ibu volcano erupts, belching 5,000-metre tower of ash
Mount Ibu, located on remote Halmahera island in eastern Indonesia, erupted on May 20, belching a tower of volcanic ash 5,000 metres above its peak, according to Indonesia's Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG).
