Giant clouds of ash engulfed the skies as Mount Sinabung became the third volcano to erupt in Indonesia, in the space of just three days.
Mount Rinjani on Lombok island near Bali erupted on Monday, with the Sinabung volcano on Sumatra island and Mount Gamalama in the Moluccas chain of islands following suit late yesterday.
No one has been injured but flights at two airports have been disrupted.
The eruptions darkened skies in parts of the archipelago and disrupted some flights.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency, said that Gamalama and Sinabung erupted late yesterday, blasting debris high into the air.
‘People are advised to stay calm,’ said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, adding authorities were not yet planning evacuations.
Nugroho said farms and trees around the three volcanoes were covered in gray ash, but nearby towns and villages were not in danger.
Hot ash tumbled down the Sinabung slopes as far as 2,000 metres (6,562 feet) southward into a river.
The volcano has been put on alert its highest level since June 2015 following a significant increase in activity.
Virgin Australia flights from Brisbane and Sydney were forced to turn around and Tigerair cancelled their flights after Mount Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia, erupted on Monday.
Mount Gamala on the eastern island of Ternate also erupted early today after a moderate earthquake in the area, sending ash up to 600 metres into the air and closing the island’s airport, said the national disaster agency.
Sultan Babullah airport in Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province, was closed today and Lombok’s international airport was closed for several hours yesterday.
The three mountains are among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia.
The archipelago of 250 million people is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire,’ a string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.
More than 13,000 people have been evacuated due to volcanic eruptions since last year, mostly from around the slopes of Sinabung.
A study last year found Mount Rinjani was one of the most powerful volcanoes to erupt over the past 2,000 years.
Following powerful volcanic eruptions, large amounts of sulphur dioxide deposit themselves in ice cores buried deep within the Antarctic.
By studying these deposits, researchers from Nevada accurately plotted the most explosive of these events during the past 2,000 years.
