Indonesian Erruption Forces Evacuation of 1300

ABC News reports that "A volcano in western Indonesia erupted again Sunday, unleashing volcanic ash high into the sky and forcing the evacuation of villagers living around its slope. Officials raised Mount Sinabung's alert status to the second-highest level after the 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) -high mountain erupted early Sunday, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Authorities were working to evacuate residents from four North Sumatra province villages located within the mountain's three-kilometer (two-mile) danger zone, Nugroho said. About 1,300 villagers have been relocated to safer areas so far. It was the volcano's second big eruption since late last month, with its Oct. 24 explosion prompting the evacuation of more than 3,300 people." This video of Sinabung's 2010 eruption gives some clue about what to expect.

Comments

"Err"uption

[Anonymous Coward]

To err-upt is volcano.

Re:"Err"uption

[game kid]

The Slashdot team works all day, erry day. You should give them more credit.

Re:evacuation of people

[wonkey_monkey]

v.intr.
1. To withdraw from or vacate a place or area, especially as a protective measure.

In the words of the great George Carlin

[Nrrqshrr]

"They build their houses right next to active volcanoes, and then wonder why there is lava in the living room."

Re:In the words of the great George Carlin

[Sockatume]

Until 2010 it was a dormant volcano, and that sequence of eruptions resulted in no casulaties; in the odds game that is risk management, was not totally irrational to move back into the area.

Re:In the words of the great George Carlin

[ultranova]

"They build their houses right next to active volcanoes, and then wonder why there is lava in the living room."

It's almost as dumb as building them at the bottom of a gravity well and then worrying about meteors falling in and wrecking the place up.

That volcano has a bad efficiency...

[gentryx]

Slightly off-topic, but this reminded me of how yesterday 20000 people were evacuated in Dortmund (one of Germany's larger cities). And it didn't even need a full-fledged volcano to prompt this: a mere 4000 pounds, ~70 years old air mine was enough. Stuff like this is (still) daily business in Germany, though. They are still far from having cleared up all duds.

Re:That volcano has a bad efficiency...

[Sockatume]

I think if a volcano erupted in Dortmund there'd be a lot more than 20,000 people evacuated. Don't be so rough on the poor thing for happening to be in a thinly-populated area.

Re:Nope.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

While you'd get quite the opposite impression (and effect) from the ashfall immediately following an eruption, volcanic soils that have had some time to weather a bit and regain their organic and biological components tend to be pretty rich. Assuming that eruptions don't happen too often, easier farming and occasional disruption beats the alternative.

It's sort of like telling people not to live next to rivers. Sure, they flood on occasion, and that sucks; but the rest of the time that's where the trade, fishing, and relatively steady water supply is.

Now, you would probably be better off not building a city on, or close to, a volcano. You wont' be getting much agriculture done in an urban environment, and those things can be expensive to rebuild.

Re:Nope.

[Sockatume]

I'm curious as to why volcanic soils are so fertile. A quick google suggests that it's just that they happen to be enriched with particular minerals but I'd love to hear some more detail if a slashdotter knows some of the chemistry.