Indonesian authorities on Wednesday ordered hundreds of villagers to evacuate following multiple eruptions of a remote island volcano, raising fears it could collapse into the sea and trigger a tsunami.
Mount Ruang, a 725-meter (2,400-foot) conical stratovolcano on Ruang Island, North Sulawesi, has erupted at least five times since Tuesday night, spewing fiery lava and ash plumes thousands of feet into the sky, the country’s volcanology agency said.
Agency chief Hendra Gunawan said officials had raised the volcano alert to the highest level, warning people not to go within 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) of the peak, due to fears Mount Ruang could partially collapse into the water and cause a tsunami.
Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of 270 million people, has over 120 active volcanoes – more than anywhere else in the world. It sits along the Ring of Fire, a 25,000-mile (40,000-kilometer) arc of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
In 2018, the eruption of Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau caused it to topple into the sea, triggering a tsunami that struck the coasts of the main Java and Sumatra islands, killing more than 400 people.