Anak Krakatau Still Erupts, BNPB: Beware of Aftershock Tsunami

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of the Information Data Center and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesperson, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said that the activity of Mount Anak Krakatau continued to erupt and its status was still on level 2 alert.

The danger radius is 2 kilometers from the crater peak of Mount Anak Krakatau. To anticipate the aftershock tsunami, BNPB set recommendation for a distance of 500 meters to one kilometer from the coastline that there should be no community activities.

“This is to anticipate the aftershock tsunami,” Sutopo said during a press conference at BNPB office, Jalan Pramuka, Jakarta, Wednesday, December 28.

Sutopo explained that the government planned to develop a tsunami early warning system caused by underwater landslides and volcanic eruptions. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said that the Sunda Strait tsunami occurred because of 64 hectares of underwater landslides. Several times, the underwater landslides triggered a tsunami, namely in Ende in 1992, in Palu in 2018, and on Krakatau in 2018.

“The disasters were triggered by an underwater landslide that generated a tsunami,” he said.

According to him, it needs a network of seismographs, a more solid buoy network, because it will certainly be more complicated.

“The closer the sensors are, the better the results will be. First in the Sunda Strait, then in the Indonesian regions prone to earthquake and tsunami,” he said.

Sutopo explained in the Indonesia Tsunami Early Warning System (EWS), a tsunami buoy is one part of tsunami early warning. Without a buoy, tsunami early warning (EWS) continues. The tsunami buoy serves to ensure that a tsunami is detected in the ocean before crashing the coast.

REZKI ALVIONITASARI