Indonesian volcano spits powerful burst of
ash into the air
Published on Oct 24, 2013
4:05 PM
In this time exposure taken from Karo district on Sept 18, 2013, lightning strikes next to Mount Sinabung as it spews steam
and ash. A disaster official says a volcano in western Indonesia has unleashed a column of dark volcanic material high into
the air weeks after villagers fled from an earlier eruption. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP
MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) - A disaster official says a volcano in western Indonesia has unleashed a column
of dark volcanic material high into the air weeks after villagers fled from an earlier eruption.
National Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho says Thursday's explosion at Mount
Sinabung, located in North Sumatra province, shot black ash 3km into the air. There were no reports of
injuries or damage.
The spokesman says villages, farms and trees around the 2,600m volcano were covered in thick gray ash,
forcing the authorities to evacuate more than 3,300 people from 11 hard-hit villages.
Last month, more than 15,000 people were forced to flee when the volcano rumbled to life. Mount
Sinabung is among 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval.
Philippine earthquake creates miles-long
rocky wall
Published on Oct 24, 2013
6:31 PM
This undated handout photo released on Thursday, Oct 24, 2013, by Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
(Phivolcs) shows government geologists inspecting a ground rupture creating a rock wall in the village of Anonang,
Inabanga town, Bohol province brought about by the 7.2-magnitude quake which hit the province on Oct 15, 2013. A deadly
earthquake that struck the Philippines last week created a spectacular rocky wall that stretches for kilometres (miles) through
farmlands, astounded geologists said on Thursday, Oct 24, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP / PHIVOLCS

MANILA, (AFP) - A deadly earthquake that struck the Philippines last week created
a spectacular rocky wall that stretches for kilometres (miles) through farmlands, astounded
geologists said.
Dramatic pictures of the Earth-altering power of the 7.1-magnitude quake have emerged as the government
worked to mend the broken central island of Bohol, ground zero of the destruction.
A "ground rupture" pushed up a stretch of ground by up to three metres, creating a wall of rock above the
epicentre, Ms Maria Isabel Abigania, a geologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology, told AFP on Thursday.
"Our people have walked five kilometres so far and not found the end of this wall," she said, as experts
from the institute surveyed the damage.
"So far we have not gotten any reports of people getting swallowed up in these cracks. The fault runs along
a less-populated area." A photograph on the institute's website showed part of the rock wall grotesquely
rising on farmland behind an unscathed bamboo hut.
Another house was shown lodged in a crack of the Earth, while a big hole on the ground opened up at a
banana farm.
Mr Renato Solidum, head of the institute, said the ground fissures from the quake, which killed 198 people
on Bohol and two nearby islands, were among the largest recorded since the government agency began
keeping quake records in 1987.
"Most of our other quake records show a lateral (sideways) tearing of the earth, though we've also had
coral reefs rising from the sea," he said, citing a 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the central island of
Negros last year.
The Philippines lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire made up of chains of islands created by volcanic
eruption that are also frequently hit by earthquakes.
President Benigno Aquino told reporters Thursday the institute had assured him the worst was over,
though Bohol would continue to be hit by aftershocks over the next few weeks.
"There is no immediate danger" either from the aftershocks or from the ground fissures, said President
Aquino, who slept in an army tent there overnight Wednesday in solidarity with the survivors.
Philippine leader tries to reassure quake
victims
Published on Oct 24, 2013
9:15 PM

This handout photo taken on Thursday, Oct 24, 2013, and released by Malacanang Photo Bureau (MPB) shows Philippine
President Benigno Aquino III walking inside a tent after staying overnight in the quake-hit town of Loon, Bohol
province. The Philippine president has slept overnight in an army tent to reassure still-jittery residents of a central town
devastated by an earthquake this month. -- PHOTO: AFP / GIL NARTEA / MPB
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (AP) - The Philippine president has slept overnight in an army tent to reassure
still-jittery residents of a central town devastated by an earthquake this month.
President Benigno Aquino III said he felt a mild aftershock before dawn Thursday and had to wear a jacket
to fight off the strong breeze in Bohol province's scenic Loon town. He said the experience brought back
memories of his Boy Scout days.
A magnitude-7.2 temblor on Oct 15 killed 198 people, including 185 in Bohol, injured hundreds and
damaged thousands of houses and old Roman Catholic churches. Many villagers have refused to return
home amid continuing aftershocks and rumours of another quake that can cause a tsunami.
Aquino inspected damaged towns and handed food packs to displaced villagers before flying back to
Manila on Thursday.