- Mount Marapi volcanic history
- Ongoing alert since 2011
- Volcanic eruption claims lives
After the recovery of five climbers’ remains, it is presumed that eighteen individuals remain deceased.
Rescuers rushing to locate hikers reported missing since a deadly volcanic eruption in Indonesia have discovered an additional body, bringing the total number of confirmed and presumed deceased to 23.
Following the eruption on Sunday, over fifty climbers were rescued.
However, search operations were temporarily suspended on Monday when Mount Marapi resumed emitting smoke and ash.
Scale of the Eruption
Approximately 75 individuals were ascending the 2,891-meter-tall (9,485-foot-tall) volcano when it erupted.
Five climbers’ remains were discovered near the eruption site, and an additional eighteen are presumed deceased, according to a Tuesday statement by Edi Mardianto, deputy police chief in the province of West Sumatra.
He predicted that they were long since deceased.
Tomorrow or today, the team will evacuate the patients and transport them to the hospital for identification.
Rescuers were seen in a video released by the Search and Rescue Agency of West Sumatra transferring an injured climber from the mountain to an ambulance en route to the hospital while using a pallet.
The video captured the volcano’s eruption in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. Thick columns of ash up to two miles in height covered local roads and villages.
Mount Merapi erupted again between January and February among the most active volcanoes in the region.
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Because the source is shallow and close to the summit, its sudden eruptions are difficult to detect. They are not the result of magma moving at great depths, which triggers vibrations detected by seismic monitors.
Historical Tragedy and Ongoing Alertness
Sixty persons were killed in April 1979 during its deadliest eruption.
Since 2011, it has remained at the third highest of four alert levels, prohibiting climbers and villagers from within 1.8 miles of the peak due to above-normal volcanic activity, as reported by the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation in Indonesia.
Climbers can only do so below the hazard zone, with online registration or registration at two command posts.
Local officials acknowledged, however, that many individuals may have ascended higher than authorised and that locals may have been present, rendering it impossible to corroborate the exact number of people stranded by the eruption.
Mount Marapi is one of over 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a country geographically situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”—a complex network of fault lines and volcanoes encircles the Pacific Basin—thereby rendering it susceptible to seismic disruptions.
