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Mount Semeru on alert after activity fluctuates

23 May 2008, LUMAJANG - The activity of the Mount Semeru volcano in eastern Java is fluctuating, but it's status is kept at the second highest level since it was raised from 'average' just yesterday. A number of hot ash clouds has come down from the slopes already, some reached up to 1.500 meters from the crater.

According to tv-images from Metro TV, one of the hot ash clouds reached as far as 1.500 meters from the crater in the direction of Besukbang, subdistrict Tempursari and Pronojiwo. Outside that, the highest volcano on the island of Java has also exhausted smoke some twenty times with heights up to 500 meters inside the caldera of the volcano. According to remarks of seismologists at Gunung Sawur Candipuro, there were no volcanic tremors reported.

A cloud of gas is emitted from the Mount Semeru volcano in eastern Java. © Metro TV