REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MEDAN -- Mount Sinabung in the district of Karo, North Sumatra, spewed super-heated clouds into the atmosphere when it erupted at 2.23pm on Tuesday.
The eruption lasted for about 20 minutes, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency's head of data and information, Sutopo Purwo, said in a text message received here on Tuesday.
According to reports from the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG), the super-charged clouds travelled southeast for one kilometer.
These were the first super-charged clouds emitted from the mountain's crater since the volcano first erupted this past September.
No one was killed during the eruption, as people had already been evacuated.
Sutopo predicted that the mountain had the potential to continue erupting while the ash, reaching heights of as high as 3,000 meters above the crater, could have a harmful affect on the public.
The mountain produced a thundering sound when it erupted, which could be heard as far as the monitoring post 8.5 kilometers away.