Jakarta, Feb 26 (IANS) Frans Xavier Seda Airport in Indonesia’s eastern province of East Nusa Tenggara was temporarily closed on Wednesday following the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on the island of Flores, according to the flight navigation service AirNav Indonesia.
I Nyoman Oka Wirama, an official from AirNav Indonesia, told local media that the airport, located in the Sikka region, was closed for a day until the situation was deemed safe for flights.
The closure, he explained, was also prompted by a report from a pilot flying from the town of Maumere to Kupang, the provincial capital, on Wednesday morning. The pilot detected the smell of sulfur at an altitude between 5,000 and 11,000 feet.
According to the country’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted at around 6:40 a.m. local time, spewing ash up to 2,500 metres above its peak.
Lewotobi Laki-Laki is currently at Level III, one level below Indonesia’s highest volcano alert level. Standing at approximately 1,584 metres above sea level, it forms a twin volcano with Lewotobi Perempuan, located in the southeastern part of Flores Island, Xinhua news agency reported.
It is not uncommon for Indonesia to witness such volcanic eruptions as it is situated along the famous ‘Ring of Fire’ in the Pacific region- an encirclement dotted by active volcanoes that sit on top of vigorous tectonic plates that often collide and lead to seismic activity causing earthquakes and tsunamis.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki is located on Flores Island. It is a volcanic mountain situated in East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia.
The volcano is part of a twin-volcano system that the local residents perceive as male and female mountains.
Mount Lewotobi is composed of the two adjacent stratovolcanoes: Laki-Laki and Perempuan (the “husband and wife”), which lie less than 2 kilometres apart.
The two mountains are classified as stratovolcanoes which are the most commonly occurring volcanoes around the world and are formed by the layers of lava that repeatedly oozes out of the crater.
–IANS
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