"Small eruptions can still happen judging by its continuing seismicity from day to day," Farid Ruskanda Bina, head of the Mt Lokon observation post in Tomohon, said here on Monday (Oct 31).
He said signs of the presence of bottled up energy in the form of deep and shallow volcanic earthquakes were still being recorded.
The accumulated energy could any time result in an eruption although on a smaller scale than what happened on Wednesday when the Tompaluan crater spewed volcanic materials to a height of 1,200 meters into the sky.
"Two small eruptions with volcanic materials thrown up to a height of 200 to 400 meters happened on Sunday (Oct 30). They occur because there is still a certain amount of energy left in the volcano`s bowels," Farid said.
The volcanic earthquakes which had been recorded twenty times could indicate a temporary balance following yesterday`s eruption, Farid said.
Eighteen Indonesian volcanoes are on "alert" status, two of which are at Alert Level 3, which is called "Siaga", the Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center says.
The center`s head, Surono, said in July that Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi and Mount Ibu in North Maluku were the two volcanoes in a Siaga status.
The center had instituted a volcanic activity scale of four levels of alert status: "Normal" (Level 1), "Waspada" (Level 2), "Siaga" (Level 3) and "Awas" (Level 4).
Surono said the conditions of Mt Lokon and Mt Ibu were currently considered the most worrisome because they had been consistently emitting hot clouds that affected a radius of 2.5 kilometers.
(Uu.B003/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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