Tourist site at Indonesian volcano Tangkubanparahu closed after small eruption

Indonesian stratovolcano Tangkubanparahu erupted and spewed ash some 500 m into the sky on Monday, March 4, 2013. The tourist site was closed for public on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at around 5 PM local time and authorities have declared danger zone of 1.5 kilometers from crater.

According to head of the Regional Disaster Management Agency of West Bandung, Maman Sulaiman, tourists are being instructed not to enter the site by the means of informative banners. The Center for Volcanology has maintained Tangkubanparahu’s status to level II despite increase in volcanic activity. The head of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency at the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, Surono says alert level will be raised only if there is significant surge in activity at the volcano. He claims current quake patterns negate possibility of any such surge.

Tangkubanparahu (also known as Tangkuban Perahu) is a broad shield-like stratovolcano overlooking Indonesia’s former capital city of Bandung. The volcano was constructed within the 6 x 8 km Pleistocene Sunda caldera, which formed about 190,000 years ago. The volcano’s low profile is the subject of legends referring to the mountain of the “upturned boat.” The rim of Sunda caldera forms a prominent ridge on the western side; elsewhere the caldera rim is largely buried by deposits of Tangkuban Parahu volcano. The dominantly small phreatic historical eruptions recorded since the 19th century have originated from several nested craters within an elliptical 1 x 1.5 km summit depression.

Source: GVP, Tempointeractive

Featured image: Andri Suprihadi – CC BY 2.0