Krakatau, Indonesia – volcanic earthquakes are creating unrest in coastal villages

Last update: October 6, 2011 at 10:51 pm by By Armand Vervaeck

Image courtesy Aris Yanto – exploredesa.com

Indonesia Volcanology Centre and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG)prohibits people to approach Krakatau volcano within a radius of 2 kilometer. Krakatau has been seismically overactive since Tuesday.
On September 30 PVMBG increased the alert status from 2 to 3 (on a scale from 0 to 4).

Although nothing uncommon happens visually at the moment (Krakatau has small explosive eruptions many times a day all year), the number of volcanic earthquakes is very high since Tuesday.

The PVMBG specialists who are guarding the volcano are saying however that a violent eruption generating a tsunami is highly unlikely at this alert level (krakatau is an island and a huge part of the volcano is below sea level). Many coastal villages in the Sunda strait are very scared that this volcano with a violent past will explode again. Scientists can  predict volcano eruptions fairly good today. GPS recordings which show an eventual deformation of parts of the volcano are giving a good hint in the potential danger.
The inhabitants of the coastal villages have been told by the scientists that they should calm down because a major eruption like the 1883 is highly unlikely at this moment.

to read more, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/06/krakatau-indonesia-volcanic-earthquakes-are-creating-ner/