DENPASAR, 15 January 2018: Bali’s Mount Agung erupted again last Thursday afternoon, but the island remains safe and the airport has been operating normally.
The exclusion zone that covers a 6 km radius of Mount Agung remains in place, but officials reiterated that areas outside of the zone were safe for travellers.
On Thursday evening volcano spat out a column of grey smoke 2,500 metres into the air, with an earthquake that lasted 130 seconds.
The cloud of smoke and ash was blown northeast in the opposite direction of the island’s international airport.
Flights are operating normally.
PVMBG the agency that monitors volcanic and geographical disasters said: “While volcanic activity of Mount Agung has been fluctuating over the past several weeks, it persists at a high level at the moment with continuous tremors. Deep volcanic and tectonic earthquakes are still being detected by the observation post in Rendang.”
Although the alert has remained unchanged at the highest level since 27 November, Indonesian volcanologists told local media that alert level was restricted to the 6 km exclusion zone and not the entire island.
PVMBG head, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, tweeted 11 January: “The status is still ‘danger’ (level 4). The dangerous area is only within a radius of six km from the top of the crater. Outside the six km radius, conditions are safe and normal.”
While figures estimating the amount of evacuees seem to be inconsistent at times, Sutopo estimates that as many as 53,207 people are still displaced from the volcano, spread out over 233 refuge points.
