TARGET 150729

MOUNT SINABUNG

GOES BANG

Mount Sinabung, in the Karo district, Indonesia's North Sumatra province, has been a dormant volcano for nearly four centuries. In 2010, it came back to life, spewing pyroclastic ash into the air.

There have been minor and major eruptions since, some resulting in evacuation and several deaths. One major eruption in November, 2013 resulted in the state evacuating over 15,000 local inhabitants until the majority of the danger was over.

    

    

But for the most part, local villagers learned to live with the rumblings, periodic ash clouds, and apparent danger. They have continued to live with the land, raise and harvest their crops, and live as normal lives as possible, under the circumstances.

    

And part of the morning routine is to go out and see how the mountain will affect their plans for the day, or for snapping shots of it with their cell phones to post pictures on social media sites.



But on June 17, 2015, the volcano decided to really make its presence known. This time, things were different, though.

    

This time, instead of just clouds of dust, a pyroclastic flow began pouring down the mountainside...

    

...and with it, molten lava.

    

Time to leave - by any means possible.

    

The tiny farming villages quickly emptied out, left to the dust and fate of the volcano.



And it appears as though the god Vulcan is giving a warning to a young boy:
"This is MY land, boy! You'd better run!" *

Although the volcano's recent spate of activity hasn’t caused any injuries yet, 10,000 nearby villagers have already evacuated the region. Whether they will have land to return to or not is still unknown.

FEEDBACK MAP



If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, more information,
pictures and videos can be found at the following web sites:

China Daily on-line News
Wikipedia
Weather.com
IB Times web site
Mashable.com

Photos by: Gettyimages, Sijori Images/ZUMA Wire/Corbis, Ivan Damanik/NurPhoto/Corbis, and DEDI SAHPUTRA/EPA
* The photo of the boy and the volcano is real and not retouched or photoshopped.

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Many thanks to Teresa Frish for slelecting this target for the Wednesday night free webinars she holds on a monthly basis. We at PSI use the targets she selects on this day so viewers will not wind up getting two different targets with the same set of coordinates. You can sign up for these free webinars at her web page under the option, "Online Classes & Discussions". Videos of all of Teresa's webinars are available on YouTube

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