In Indonesia there was a new eruption of Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcanowhich generated a 10 km high ash column and clearly visible throughout the surrounding area: according to what was reported by the Indonesian Geological Agency, the eruptive activity began on Wednesday 15 October at 01.35 am (local time, 6.35pm on Tuesday 14 October in Italy) and it lasted 9 minutes in total.
A second eruption was registered at 09:21 local (03:21 in Italy), which in 3 minutes caused a second ash cloud 8 km high: the local authorities then issued the maximum alert levelinviting residents and tourists not to carry out any activity within a 6 km radius of the volcano. Meanwhile, dozens of people living near Laki-Laki have been evacuated as a precaution, although no casualties have been reported. The Maumere airport, in the province of Nusa Tenggara, was temporarily closed, but the eruptive activity did not cause any inconvenience to Bali airportone of the busiest in the area.
The Laki-Laki volcano (“man” in Indonesian) is 1,584 meters high and is located on the Indonesian island of Flores: it is one stratovolcano (characterized by a typical cone shape) located along the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The last eruption of Mount Lewotobi occurred last year August 1st: also in this case, some have been recorded volcanic lightningdue to the difference in electric potential within the volcanic cloud.
A peculiarity of this mountain is the fact that it has a “twin” a short distance away, the Perempaunwhich means “woman” in Indonesian. The term twins refers to the fact that they both share the same magma chamber, so in reality from a geological point of view they are the same volcano (Lewotobi) but with two different craters (Laki-Laki and Perempaun) located less than 2 km apart.
