In Indonesia, there are fears that a volcanic eruption could lead to a tsunami

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More than 2,100 people living near a volcano in Indonesia were displaced on Friday due to risks associated with its eruption. In fact, the volcanic island of Ruang, located about 100 kilometers north of Sulawesi, began erupting on Tuesday, creating a column of smoke and ash that reached a height of 1,200 meters yesterday. Evacuations are still underway: in total, more than 11,000 people have been asked to leave their homes. Most of them live on the nearby island of Tagulandang, which has a population of 20,000; It can be reached not only by volcanic ash and lava, but also by potential tsunamis caused by lava and rocks falling into the sea.

Ruang is a small island measuring 4 by 5 kilometers and represents the emerging part of the volcano that formed it. It is a stratovolcano, meaning a cone-shaped volcano like Etna. Scientists monitoring the ongoing eruption fear that part of the volcanic cone will collapse and fall into the sea, causing a tidal wave, as already happened in 1871.

The evacuation order prohibits approaching within 3.7 kilometers of the volcano's crater. Due to ash that was spread into the atmosphere due to the volcanic eruption, Manado International Airport in North Sulawesi was also closed.

Indonesia is a country very at risk from volcanic eruptions, with 130 active volcanoes. The islands that make up its lands are located above what is called in geology the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” which is the area surrounding the largest ocean in the world, along whose borders the continental plates of the Earth’s crust overlap with the oceanic plate.