Mount Ibu erupts more than 1,000 times this month

JAKARTA

A volcano in eastern Indonesia has erupted at least a thousand times this month, according to an official report on Sunday as efforts were underway to evacuate thousands of villagers living near the rumbling mountain.

Mount Ibu, on the remote island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, sent a column of smoke up to four kilometers into the sky in an eruption on Jan. 15.

Indonesian officials raised its alert status to the highest level and called for the evacuation of 3,000 people living in six nearby villages.

It was one of 1,079 eruptions by the volcano recorded since Jan. 1 by Indonesia's Geological Agency, sending columns of ash reaching between 0.3 and 4 kilometres above its peak.

The latest big eruption occurred yesterday at 1:15 am local time as it spewed a towering cloud of ash 1.5 kilometers into the air.

It added that the volcano had erupted 17 times yesterday alone.

Mount Ibu, one of Indonesia's most active volcanos, has shown a significant increase in activity since last June.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity as it lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Last November, Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-metre twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores erupted more than a dozen times in one week, killing nine people in its initial explosion.

Mount Ruang in North Sulawesi province erupted more than half a dozen times last year, forcing thousands from nearby islands to evacuate.