Northern Indonesian volcano spews heatclouds, ash

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2004

JAKARTA (AFP) — A volcano in Indonesia's northernmost province of North Sulawesi belched smoke and heatclouds and blanketed a town and several villages with ash, an official said.

Mount Soputan began rumbling close to midnight on Saturday, with increasing frequency of tremors, and finally belched heatclouds and ash at around 5:00 am (2200 GMT Saturday), said Yudi Juhara from the nearby vulcanology office in Tomohon.

The heatclouds, with temperatures reaching as high as 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 Fahrenheit), did not fall far from the crater, Juhara said, adding that there were no human settlements on the slope of the vulcano threatened.

"The wind blew the ash to the east and northeast and even we here in Tomohon have been covered by a thin film of ash from...