By Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia warned that one of its most active volcanoes may erupt at any time, raising the alert for Mount Kelud to its highest level.
An eruption is ``imminent,'' the Vulcanological Survey of Indonesia said in a statement on its Web site.
Officials ordered about 30,000 villagers living on the slopes of the 1,731-meter (5,679-foot) volcano in Kediri, in the eastern part of Java, to evacuate late yesterday, Associated Press reported. Many people refused to leave, AP said.
Mount Kelud last erupted in 1990 and statistics show another eruption is now two years overdue, Surono, a leading volcanologist at the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources, said last month.
Indonesia is located on the western side of the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geologic fault lines surrounding the Pacific Basin. The country has had two of the world's biggest volcanic eruptions in the past 200 years, Mount Tambora in 1815 and Krakatau in the Sunda Straits in 1883.
Scientists analyze tremors, the temperature of water in the crater lake and other data to forecast the likelihood of an eruption.
Magma, gas and vapor pressure caused 306 ``volcanological earthquakes'' yesterday, according to the statement. Water temperature increased to 37.8 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), from 30.4 degrees Celsius in early August.
A system to curb the flow of lava from Mount Kelud has been in place since 1926. Seven canals would drive the lava into man- made lakes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja in Jakarta at wahyudi@bloomberg.net .
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