A volcano erupted yesterday in eastern Papua New Guinea (PNG), spewing rocks and ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of local communities and international flights to be rerouted, officials said.
Mount Tavurvur, which destroyed the town of Rabaul when it erupted simultaneously with nearby Mount Vulcan in 1994, rumbled to life early in the morning on the tip of the remote island of New Britain.
“The eruption started slow and slowly developed in a Strombolian [low level] eruption with incandescent projections accompanied by explosion noises and ongoing loud roaring and rumbling noises,” the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory said.
The Australian government issued a warning against traveling to the area, while flag carrier Qantas rerouted some flights to avoid the ash cloud.
“Authorities have evacuated communities close to the volcano. Residents of Rabaul town have been advised to remain indoors to avoid falling ash,” Canberra said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in the northern Australian city of Darwin said the ash cloud was drifting southeast.
“The eruption was to 60,000 feet [18,000m], which is flight level. There was two hours of high-level eruption,” said Cyndee Seals, an official from the centre.
“The ash was initially blowing to the southwest, but has now turned to the southeast and we expect it to clip the edge of Australian airspace later today, but we don’t expect ash over Australia,” she said.
In Rabaul, the ground was covered in a layer of ash, local reports said.
“Police have cautioned people not to panic, but remain indoors and listen to local Radio East New Britain for updates,” the PNGloop Web site said.
In related news, Iceland yesterday raised its alert warning level to maximum after what it called a small eruption in the Bardarbunga volcano system, but said there was no sign of ash that could affect air travel in Europe.
In 2010, an ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, in a different region of Iceland, closed much of Europe’s air space for six days.
Iceland’s largest volcanic system, which cuts a 190km-long and up to 25km-wide swathe across the North Atlantic island, has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the past two weeks and scientists have been on high alert in case of an eruption.
Reykjavik’s Meteorological Office said that just after midnight an estimated 1km-long fissure eruption began in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers part of Bardarbunga system.
The risk of an ash cloud is highest in case of a sub-glacial eruption.
“The Icelandic Met Office has raised the aviation colorcode over the eruption site to red and the Icelandic Air Traffic Control has closed down the air space from the earth up to 18,000 feet [5,486m],” the National Crisis Coordination Center said in a statement.
Red is the highest alert level on a five-color scale and indicates that an eruption is imminent or under way, with a risk of ash.
“No volcanic ash has been detected with the radar system at the moment... Seismic eruption tremor is low indicating effusive eruption without significant explosive activity,” the crisis center said.
The eruption is at the tip of a magma dyke about 40km from the main Bardarbunga crater and activity subsided to relatively low levels after peaking between 00:20 and 2:00 GMT, Iceland Met Office seismologist Martin Hensch said, adding that it was impossible to say how the eruption would develop.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not