Vanuatu's erupting Mt. Manaro volcano burst into spectacular life yesterday -- shooting steam and toxic gases 3km into the skies above remote Ambae Island.
Huge columns of dense white steam and muddy ash spewed above the South Pacific island to reach the greatest height seen since it began erupting on Nov. 27.
The plumes of steam and gases were bursting from a huge vent in the middle of muddy gray-brown lake Vui in the crater -- which before the eruptions began last month was a picturesque calm aqua blue.
PHOTO: AP
Pilot Charles Nelson of local charter company Flight Club Vila said the lake "is looking like a huge grubby bowl of hot kava," referring to a murky local drink made of the pounded roots of a local pepper plant mixed with water.
Nelson was speaking after flying close to the erupting volcano yesterday morning.
Skeletal dead trees ring the edge of Manaro's crater, while trees in dense jungle nearby were covered in ash which has been belching from the volcano.
The huge smoke, ash and gas plume cast a shadow over now deserted villages clinging to the volcano's flank.
Villagers have been evacuated from the path of a possible mud flow, that vulcanologists fear could burst over the crater lip if the eruption continues or intensifies, sweeping away the flimsy homes in its path.
Some 5,000 villagers -- half the island's population -- are squatting in townships in low-lying areas of the northwest and southeast corners of the small island and four ships are anchored off its shores ready to evacuate villagers if the eruption worsens.
"Everything is left behind. We brought only clothing, pots and bush knives for cutting fuel," said Markson Mala, a 54-year-old retired teacher who was among 100 people trucked out of their village, Wainasasa, on the northern flank of the volcano last Friday.
He said ash rained down on villagers' gardens, forcing them to wash all their food. Villagers on the island live in huts made of palm fronds and sheets of tin and grow their own vegetables.
"This is the second time we've been given a strong warning [by the volcano] to leave our area," he added.
The volcano last erupted in 1995, but nobody was injured.
Local transport operator Simean Tali said the ships anchored off the island mean "we should get off [the island] if it goes up."
Two hospitals on the island have been emptied of patients, and teams of doctors and nurses are on call to fly to Ambae from the capital, Port Vila, if a major eruption occurs, the National Disaster Management Office said.
"Maybe nothing is going to happen, but it is better to be ready than not," Prime Minister Ham Lini told the Daily Post newspaper this week.
New Zealand vulcanologist Brad Scott, who is on Ambae monitoring the eruption said "it remains a low-level eruption, but it could go either way -- worsen or slowly subside."
``At present it's still in steady state,'' he said.
While Manaro "is capable of bigger eruptions ... we've seen no evidence at this time it's leading towards a bigger eruption," he added.
In a note to local villagers, the vulcanologists said there was "no evidence" the molten magma was swelling or cracking the ground near the lake. There are fears that if the lake bed cracks and water plunges onto the magma it could trigger a massive explosion.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS