- Indonesian scientists have placed 11 volcanoes under
close watch after a series of powerful quakes awoke intense subterranean
forces and increased the chances of a major eruption.
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- As tens of thousands spent a third night in temporary
camps after fleeing the slopes of Mount Talang on Sumatra island, where
hot ash has been raining down since Monday, more volcanoes began rumbling
into life.
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- Late Wednesday, Anak Krakatau - the "child"
of the legendary Krakatoa that blew itself apart in 1883 in one of the
worst-ever natural disasters - was put on alert status amid warnings of
poisonous gas emissions.
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- No one lives on Krakatoa, a small island in the Sunda
Strait between Java and Sumatra, but the peak is a popular tourist spot,
attracting both Indonesian and foreign day trippers.
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- A similar warning was earlier issued for Tangkuban Perahu,
near the west Java city of Bandung. Next week the city will host more than
50 heads of state, including China's president, at a summit of Asian and
African leaders.
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- Isya Nur Ahmad Dana of Indonesia's Vulcanology Office
said Mount Merapi, 70km north of the Sumatran city of Padang, had been
on alert since last August, but along with seven other peaks was now under
closer watch.
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- "The status of Tangkuban Perahu in west Java and
Krakatau in the Sunda Strait have both been raised from 'normal' to 'alert'
on Wednesday following an observed increase in volcanic activities,"
Dana said.
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- Amid growing fears of an imminent disaster in the wake
of recent powerful earthquakes and last year's devastating tsunami disaster,
the government has urged people to remain calm.
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- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono travelled to an area
near Talang, 25km east of Padang, to meet some of the more than 20,000
people who have fled villages on the fertile slopes of the smoking peak.
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- His deputy Yusuf Kalla also warned people living near
other active volcanoes to take precautions and urged local officials to
make contingency plans in anticipation of an eruption.
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- "We call on the people to really be alert,"
he said.
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- Indonesia has 130 active volcanoes, forming part of the
Pacific Ring of Fire - an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches
from quake-prone Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
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- The archipelago nation's proximity to the junction of
three continental plates, which jostle under immense pressure, makes it
particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and eruptions.
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- A massive 9.3 magnitude earthquake on December 26 triggered
the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people. A second
quake of 8.7 on the Richter scale from the same faultline killed at least
670 people last month.
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- Scientists have warned of a possible third disaster,
either a quake or an eruption from a so-called super volcano, such as the
giant crater in which Lake Toba in Sumatra is located, where increased
activity has also been recorded.
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- Mount Talang, a 2599m volcano that last erupted in 2003,
remains on standby for eruption with scientists unable to determine if
the peak was beginning to calm down.
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- "Our team is still studying the data on site and
we cannot yet say whether the activities of Mount Talang have slowed down
or energy is building up for a bigger eruption," Dana said.
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- But he said there were no immediate moves to evacuate
people around Tangkuban Perahu, which straddles the territories of two
districts and the city of Bandung, with a total population of some 7.5
million people.
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- One prominent Indonesian seismologist meanwhile expressed
doubt that the volcanic activity was linked to recent tremors as quakes
were linked to tectonic friction while eruptions were due to an accumulation
of molten magma.
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- "Theoretically, it can happen and there is a relationship,
but the correlation is not 100 percent and it rarely occurs," said
Sarwidi, head of seismology studies centre at Indonesia's Islamic University
in Yogyakarta.
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- In the latest earth tremor, a 5.8-magnitude quake was
recorded on Sumatra island, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
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