Bali’s Mount Agung on the Verge of Erupting

Should Mount Agung erupt and/or produce ash clouds, Bali’s travel authorities have made arrangements to reroute flights to regional airports on neighboring islands.

Agung last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,100 people.

Aside from the evacuations, however, it’s business as usual on Bali.

Several countries including Britain, Australia and Singapore have issued travel advisories for their citizens, warning of possible flight disruptions and evacuations.

In a bid to protect the island’s flourishing tourism industry, officials have been quick to point out that, beyond the volcano’s danger zone, the island is still safe for visitors.

The volcano’s alert status was raised to its highest level on Friday, with hundreds of tremors daily indicating a high chance it will erupt.

Almost five million people visited the popular resort destination of Bali past year, mostly from Australia, China and Japan. The plane fell for about 6 kilometers before the pilot was able to restart three engines and make an emergency landing in Jakarta.

However, looking at Agung’s volcanic activity, Suantika said the number of tremors has decreased, but the energy level seems to be going up, as magma rises. “Less than 100 customers chose to rebook to a later date”, a Scoot spokeswoman said.

A 4.2 magnitude quake which was recorded northwest of the volcano on Tuesday afternoon also helped trigger the status upgrade, Suantika said.

The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) reported on Wednesday (9/27/2017) at 00.00 – 18.00 Central Indonesian Time, it observed 329 times shallow volcanic earthquakes, 444 times deep volcanic earthquakes, and 56 times local tectonic earthquakes.

“So I ask all people around Mount Agung to follow instructions from the officials and minimize the impact of this volcano”.

Tourists travelling around Kuta – which is 70km away from the volcano – say they aren’t anxious.

Experts are warning that an active volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali could erupt within the next couple of hours. Seismologists monitoring Mount Agung now can only compare the current activity to word-of-mouth reports of what happened prior to the volcano’s eruption in 1963.

The people who have fled the volcano are scattered across Bali in more than 400 different locations including temporary camps, sports centres and other public buildings.