Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung erupts, spews hot ash clouds

Mount Sinabung in Indonesia’s North Sumatra erupted on Tuesday in its first big eruption since August last year. The eruption threw up a torrent of hot ash and volcanic material. Officials advised villagers to stay at least 5 kilometres away from the craters mouth. No casualties were reported and air travel was not impacted by the ash cloud. One of the more than 120 active volcanoes in the region, the 8,530 feet Sinabung was dormant for centuries before erupting in 2010. It has been sporadically active since then, prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, a horseshoe-shaped belt in the Pacific Ocean, home to the majority of the earth’s volcanoes and earthquakes.