Mount Sinabung’s volcanic eruption

Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung erupted belching a massive column of volcanic ash and smoke 3,000 metres (3 km) into the sky.

Context

Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung erupted belching a massive column of volcanic ash and smoke 3,000 metres (3 km) into the sky.

Indonesia is home to many active volcanoes because of its location in the “Ring of Fire” or the Circum-Pacific Belt.
- Ring of Fire is an area along the Pacific Ocean and is characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
- The Ring of Fire is home to about 75 per cent of the world’s volcanoes and about 90 per cent of earthquakes.

Mount Sinabung is a Pleistocene-to-Holocene stratovolcano of andesite and dacite in the Karo plateau, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
It is 40 kilometres from the Lake Toba supervolcano.
The volcano has been active since 2010 when it erupted after nearly 400 years of inactivity.

There are three types of volcanoes: active, dormant or extinct.
An eruption takes place when magma rises to the surface. It is a thick flowing substance and formed when the earth’s mantle melts.
- As magma is lighter than the rock, it is able to rise through vents and fissures on the surface of the earth. After its eruption, the magma is called lava.
- Not all volcanic eruptions are explosive as the explosivity depends on the composition of the magma.
- When the magma is runny and thin, the gases can easily escape it. In this case, the magma will flow out towards the surface.
- When the magma is thick and dense, gases cannot escape it, which builds up pressure inside resulting in a violent explosion.

Volcano causes suffocation that makes people susceptible with respiratory conditions such as asthma and other chronic lung diseases.
Volcanic eruptions can result in additional threats to health such as floods, mudslides, power outages, drinking water contamination and wildfires.