Heavy rains may have set off an outpouring of ash and gases from Indonesia’s volcano Semeru “like uncorking a soda bottle”
The Indonesian island of Java’s tallest volcano, Semeru, sent an ash cloud nearly a mile into the air this week—the latest uptick in unrest from a mountain that belches ash and volcanic gases almost constantly.
“It can be like uncorking a soda bottle,” says Sally Sennert, a U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist embedded with the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program. Rains can wash out the products of previous eruptions, she says, reducing the pressure that traps hot gases under the surface and allowing them to erupt. Simultaneously, the volcano is always burping out small and medium explosions of gas, which can also cause new flows and collapses.
Semeru is busy, but it is not Indonesia’s most active volcano. That distinction usually goes to Mount Merapi, also on Java. But Semeru is not far behind, and the combination of ash, gases, pyroclastic flow, mud and human presence nearby make it a dangerous mountain. The ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management estimates that more than 61,000 people live within 6.2 miles of the volcano.
Lahars can occur with very little warning, says Elizabeth Westby, a USGS geologist at the agency’s Cascades Volcano Observatory, who studies Mount Rainier in Washington State. Like Semeru, Rainier is a stratovolcano—a classic cone-shaped mountain built up by repeated eruptions—that is prone to lahars. The USGS monitors river channels in the area in order to be able to warn communities downstream if a flow is coming.
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