A VOLCANO has erupted on the same central Indonesian island devastated by an earlier earthquake and tsunami, prompting warnings for air services over potentially disruptive volcanic ash.
Mount Soputan in North Sulawesi province spewed ash nearly 20,000ft into the sky, although there have been no evacuation orders so far.
A government volcanologist said it is possible the eruption was accelerated by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake which struck Central Sulawesi on Friday.
“It could be that this earthquake triggered the eruption, but the direct correlation has yet to be seen as there had been an increase in the Mount Soputan activity,” Kasbani – the head of Indonesia’s Vulcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation agency – told an online news source.
Kasbani, who uses one name, said the area’s volcanic activity had already been increasing at Soputan since August, but began surging on Monday.
Nazli Ismail, a geophysicist at the University of Syiah Kuala in the city of Banda Aceh on Sumatra island, stressed there is no concrete evidence to show the tsunami and volcanic eruption are linked.
He said: “People talk about the butterfly effect. The concept is that when a butterfly flaps its wings, it can cause a catastrophe.
“So it is possible for the earthquake to trigger the volcano eruption, but it’s not conclusive. This needs to be further investigated.”
Nazri said the Soputan volcano eruption is not surprising as Indonesia sits on the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” and Soputan is one of the most active volcanoes on the island.
The death toll from last week’s quake and tsunami has increased to 1407.
National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 519 of the bodies had been buried.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has visited the city and said aid is now starting to arrive.
More than 25 countries have offered assistance since the tragedy.
Indonesia is home to more than 250 million people and seismologists monitor around 120 active volcanoes.
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