Volcanic ash leaves 170,000 travelers stranded at eight Indonesian airports

Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters

Eight Indonesian airports, including two serving Jakarta, remained closed ​early on Monday morning because of volcanic ash from eruptions at Mount Anak ‌Krakatau, the transport minister said.

Ash from Anak Krakatau, which sits halfway between Java and Sumatra islands, has blanketed Jakarta and several surrounding areas since it erupted late on Friday, leading ​to the closure of the airports for safety reasons.

The transport ministry said ​170,000 people have been affected by flight cancellations.

Jakarta’s main airport will ⁠remain closed until 6 p.m. local time, its operators said on Monday ​on Instagram.

“We cannot ascertain when this will end due to the dynamic weather,” ​Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said in a statement on Monday, adding that the seven other airports, which included the ones serving Jakarta’s nearby provinces of Lampung and West Java, would remain closed until ​at least 08:59 a.m.

The volcano monitoring agency’s website showed the most recent ​Anak Krakatau eruption occurred Sunday at 8:23 p.m.

The agency warned on Monday that “the probability of further eruptions in ‌the ⁠coming periods remains high.”

The eruptions have seen ash reach as high as 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) on the Java side of the volcano and 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) on the Sumatra side and some parts of Banten province in Java, meteorological agency ​BMKG posted on ​its website.

On Sunday, ⁠the disaster agency called for people to wear masks while traveling outdoors to avoid breathing in the ash. In Jakarta and Lampung, ​schools will use remote learning to counter health risks for ​students, state ⁠news agency Antara reported.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent.

Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatau, began emerging a century ⁠ago from ​the area previously occupied by Krakatau, then known ​as Krakatoa. The older volcano destroyed itself in mass eruptions in 1883, which killed more than ​36,000 people in a series of tsunamis.

阿杰恩·迪纳尔·乌尔菲亚纳/路透社

印尼交通部长表示，由于喀拉喀托火山喷发产生的火山灰，包括两座服务于雅加达的机场在内的八个印尼机场周一清晨仍然关闭。

位于爪哇岛和苏门答腊岛之间的喀拉喀托之子火山于上周五晚间喷发，火山灰笼罩了雅加达及其周边多个地区，导致机场出于安全考虑而关闭。

交通部表示，航班取消已影响到17万人。

雅加达主要机场的运营商周一在Instagram上表示，该机场将关闭至当地时间下午6点。

“由于天气变化无常，我们无法确定何时结束，”交通部长杜迪·普尔瓦甘迪周一在一份声明中表示，并补充说，包括服务于雅加达附近楠榜省和西爪哇省的机场在内的其他七个机场将至少关闭至上午8:59。

火山监测机构的网站显示，喀拉喀托之子火山最近一次喷发发生在周日晚上8点23分。

该机构周一警告称，“未来一段时间内再次喷发的可能性仍然很高”。

印尼气象局 (BMKG) 在其网站上发布消息称，火山喷发导致火山灰在爪哇岛一侧高达 20,000 英尺（6,000 米），在苏门答腊岛一侧以及爪哇岛万丹省的部分地区高达 50,000 英尺（15,000 米）。

周日，灾害管理机构呼吁民众在户外出行时佩戴口罩，以避免吸入火山灰。据安塔拉通讯社报道，雅加达和楠榜的学校将采用远程教学，以应对学生面临的健康风险。

印度尼西亚位于太平洋“火环”上，地震和火山爆发频繁发生。

阿纳克·克拉卡托（Anak Krakatau），意为克拉卡托之子，一个世纪前开始从克拉卡托火山（当时被称为克拉卡托亚火山）曾经占据的区域升起。这座更古老的火山在1883年的大规模喷发中自我毁灭，引发的一系列海啸造成超过36000人死亡。