Volcanoes Keep Rumbling In East Java, Sangihe - Reuters

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MOUNT BROMO, Indonesia - "Hot ash and thick smoke spewed out of two Indonesian volcanoes Wednesday, a day after an eruption from one killed two tourists and rumblings at the other forced thousands of people to evacuate.

Local vulcanologist Hendrasto described the simultaneous activity at Mount Bromo and Mount Awu as "pure coincidence." Indonesia sits astride the geologically active Pacific "ring of fire" and has more than 100 active volcanoes.

Thick brown smoke hung over the 7,846-foot Mount Bromo in densely populated East Java province. But there were no fresh eruptions of rocks like the ones that killed two tourists, an Indonesian and a 12-year-old Singaporean boy, on Tuesday. At least three people were reported missing and officials said it was too dangerous to search for them on the higher slopes of the volcano, some 470 miles east of Jakarta.

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Another vulcanologist said Mt Bromo's status remained one level below the highest alert with no need yet to evacuate local residents. The other volcano that has been unusually active in recent days, Mount Awu on Sangihe island some 1,400 miles northeast of Jakarta, belched out more hot smoke and ash on Wednesday. "At around 5:12 a.m. there was a quite a large eruption of hot ash and at the top of the mountain. There is now a column of smoke 6,562 feet high," Samuel Dalompha, an official of the Directorate of Vulcanology on the island, told El Shinta radio."

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25471/story.htm