2020 lacked a little volcano to complete the picture of the annus horribilis to the end and make us frantically wait for January 1, 2021 (courage, we have done more than half of the year). Anxious to complete the loop, Indonesian Mount Sinabung erupted on Monday, projecting a thick column of ash and smoke into the atmosphere rising 5,000 meters high and plunging the region into darkness. This volcano, located on the island of Sumatra, had a deadly eruption in 2016.
Its activity has intensified over the past few days with two small eruptions over the weekend. No injuries or deaths have been reported but authorities have warned of possible lava flows and increased activity at the crater which continues to rumble.
Communities in danger
"It's an alert and avoid the red areas near Sinabung," said Armen Putera, a local official at the Indonesian Vulcanology Center. The authorities, however, maintained the state of alert at the crater at its second highest level. No one lives in the immediate vicinity of the volcano to which access is prohibited.
A thick layer of ash, however, covered small communities established near the volcano during Monday's eruption. At least one of them went from day to night in a matter of minutes.
400 years of rest
The volcano awoke in 2010 after 400 years of sleep. After a period of calm, a new eruption occurred in 2013 and since then he has been very active. Sixteen people died in 2014 and seven in 2016.
In 2018, more than 400 people were killed when a tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption suddenly swept over the southern coasts of Sumatra and the western end of Java.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands and islets formed by the convergence of three large tectonic plates (Indo-Pacific, Australian, Eurasian), is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity and volcanic eruptions with some 130 active volcanoes.
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