*NEWS*3 NEW VOLCANOES IN INDONESIA

[Anonymous]

Scientists Monitor Three Indonesia Volcanoes

MOUNT TALANG,Indonesia(April 05)-Indonesian scientists on Thursday were closely monitoring three
volcanoes that have rumbled to life, activity they link to December’s monster
earthquake off the coast of Sumatra Island and the countless other powerful
temblors that have followed.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the slopes of
Mount Talang in west Sumatra, which erupted Tuesday, showering ash over nearby
villages and spreading panic among villagers.

On Thursday, many of the villagers returned home to tend to
their crops and animals, but were planning to return to makeshift camps and
public buildings for the night.

Authorities have declared the other two volcanoes – Anak
Krakatoa off Sumatra’s southern tip and Tangkuban Perahu in west Java province –
off limits to hikers, citing a buildup of gas inside the peaks.

Scientists have been dispatched to all three mountains, but
there were no signs of imminent eruption, said Syamsul Rizal, a government
volcanologist.

Rizal said he suspected that “the activities at these
volcanoes were triggered by the Dec. 26 tremor under the Indian Ocean seabed of
Sumatra.”

The 9.1 magnitude earthquake in December triggered the
Indian Ocean tsunami. Three months later, an 8.7 magnitude quake erupted from
the same fault line, killing more than 600 people on islands off Sumatra’s west
coast.

The mountains are among at least 129 active volcanoes in
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation. The country is especially
prone to seismological activity because it is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”
– a series of volcanoes and fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere
through Japan and Southeast Asia.

Anak Krakatoa is a small volcanic island that appeared in
the 1930s on the site of the former volcano of Krakatoa, which produced the
world’s most powerful explosion when it erupted in 1883 and killed an estimated
36,000 people.

[Author]

April 18, 2005 at 9:37 AM