Mt. Agung Won’t Produce Bigger Eruption: PVMBG

Eruption of Mount Agung followed by flares of incandescent lava as far as 2 kilometers on Monday (2/7) in Karangasem Regency, Bali, is predicted not to produce a bigger eruption that produces ash clouds called “wedhus gembel” in the near future.

“Given the current situation, lava dome reaches less than the volume of the crater and there is no indication of significant magma pressure,” Head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) Kasbani said in his press release on Tuesday (3/7).

The eruption that occurred on Monday (2/7) at 21:04 Central Indonesian Time (WITA), Kasbani added, is categorized as a ‘strombolian’ eruption with a bang sound and spouted flares of incandescent lava out the crater which reaches a distance of 2 kilometers and still within exclusion zone designated by PVMBG, i.e. 4 kilometers.

“Such eruptions do not create far reaching impacts because the gas pressure is relatively small with dilute type of magma. Our nearest monitoring tool, which is placed 1.5 kilometers from the crater, still works well. The forest fire around the peak of mount is due to the incandescent lava,” Kasbani said.

Based on both instrumental and the visual existing data, according to Kasbani, there is no sign of a bigger eruption on Mount Agung because lava volume in the crater is still less than half of the volume of the crater. “So there is still a lot of empty space in the crater,” he said.

Mount Agung Observation Post in Karangasem Regency on 3 July 2018 (00:00-06:00 a.m. WITA) recorded that there had been 1 earthquake, 10 harmonic tremors and 3 low frequency earthquakes, the PVMBG Head said.

Afterwards, two eruptions occurred at 09:28 a.m. WITA with the eruption column of about 2,000 meters high above the mount peak (5,142 m above sea level) and at 09:46 a.m. WITA with the eruption column around 500 m high above the mount peak (3,642 m above sea level).

According Kasbani, at the time the press release is made, Mount Agung is now at volcano level III, a standby level.

He also urged local residents, mountain climbers as well as tourists to refrain from coming near the mountain, climbing the mountain of doing any activities in the Estimated Zone Dangers, which is in all areas within a 4 km radius of the mountain’s Peak Crater.

“It is safe for activities outside the area but please remain alert at all times,” Kasbani concluded. (Humas Kementerian ESDM/ES) (GWH/EP/Naster)