Alert status of Mt Papandayan raised

"The volcanic activity of Mt Papandayan has been increasing since early in April including tremors and smoke coming out of its peak, so that it was necessary on Wednesday (April 16) to raise its status to alert," Momon said in Cisurupan, Garut regency.

The shallow volcanic tremors have been fluctuatingly increasing. As of Tuesday (April 14) a volcanic tremor occurred, and the mountain had released smoke 50-60 meters high.

Momon said further that the latest monitoring on April 15, 2008 recorded 113 shallow volcanic quakes, including one tremor, a local tectonic shock, and a distant tectonic quake.

"While the status has been raised, the daily activities of the local people are still as usual. But they are strongly told not to enter a one kilometer radius from the active crater," Momon said.

In the meantime, the PVMBG reminded that during the rainy season, the Garut regency administration needs to monitor a possible formation of dikes following the collapse of the river banks in the upper reaches near the crater which is a potential source of flash floods like what which occurred in 2002.

"The people had been ...