JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Mount Ibu, a volcano in Indonesia’s North Maluku province, erupted Monday, spewing thick gray ash and dark clouds 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) high into the sky for five minutes , officials said.
“Volcanic earthquakes are still intense, so there is potential for a future eruption,” said Hendra Gunawan, head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.
After an eruption on Friday, the center raised the volcano’s alert level from 2 to 3, the second highest level, which expands the radius of the area that should be vacated. Local authorities have prepared evacuation tents, but no evacuation order has yet been communicated.
Authorities have advised residents and tourists not to carry out any activities within a 5-kilometer (3-mile) radius of the Mount Ibu crater. More than 13,000 people live within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the crater’s north side, Gunawan said.
The 1,325-meter (4,347-foot) volcano sits on the northwest coast of the remote island of Halmahera.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it lies along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic faults surrounding the Pacific Ocean.
