In Bali, threat of eruption of Agung Volcano

Around the Agung Volcano on Bali Island, the threat of an eruption appeared to be stronger in recent days and the authorities continued evacuations. Currently, more than 144,000 people have had to leave their homes to take shelter. For the volcanologist Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff, whom Futura has questioned, this precaution is quite justified.

WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER

Indonesian volcanoes fertilize the soil with explosive eruptions. But sometimes they can also take many lives, such as during the eruptions of the Agung, on the island of Bali, in 1963.

Since August 2017, the volcano has been showing signs of recovery and recently the multiplication of small earthquakes under the volcanic edifice has led the Indonesian authorities to evacuate more than 140,000 people within a radius of 12 km around the volcano.

It remains impossible to predict the actual occurrence of an eruption, or even the date on which it could occur. However, evacuated populations should be sheltered from fiery clouds and lahars.

Interview: What are the dangers of volcanism? Life near volcanoes is not always peaceful. In the event of an outbreak the population is subject to various dangers, some of which may be fatal. Futura-Sciences met with Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff, a volcanology doctor, to talk about these threats.

In Indonesia, on the island of Bali, 165 earthquakes were recorded on Thursday, 28 September alone, AFP reported. This activity, to which is added a thickening of smoke rich in sulfuric acid escaping from the summit of the Agung volcano, at 3000 m of height, reinforces the fear of an imminent eruption.

Evacuations continued from 122,490 Thursday to 144,389 on Friday, according to AFP. Five hundred shelters welcome them to Bali but some have preferred to take refuge on the neighboring island, Lombok. It is not excluded that the Bali airport will be closed, as it was in 2015, due to the eruption of a volcano on the same island of Lombok.

However, it remains completely impossible to pose a reliable probability of the risk of eruption. As Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff explained, this kind of activity does not predict whether the rise of magma will continue until the eruption or stop in depth.

TO KNOW MORE

In Bali, Agung volcano threatens to erupt

Article by Laurent Sacco published on September 27, 2017

More than 57,000 people have been evacuated within a radius of around 12 km around the Agung, a volcano on Bali Island, Indonesia, which is showing signs of imminent eruption. Its last eruptive phase, more than fifty years ago, had caused the death of about 1,500 people. Futura asked the volcanologist Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff some explanations on the dangerousness of this volcano.

The island of Bali is a paradise on Earth. Very popular with tourists, it is part of the Small Sunda Islands, an archipelago of Southeast Asia shared between Indonesia and East Timor. It is a member of the famous Pacific belt of fire, where concentrated volcanoes and earthquake centers, which intrigued geologists more than half a century ago.

We now know that these are simply edges of tectonic plates, where subduction phenomena occur. The latter give rise to insular volcanic arcs when two oceanic plates are concerned, as is the case with the Sunda Islands (these subduction phenomena give rise to continental volcanic arcs when an oceanic plate passes under a continental plate, as is the case with the Andean volcanoes such as Cotopaxi).

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