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May 7 (UPI) -- Indonesia's Mount Sinabung volcano erupted again Tuesday, spewing ash thousands of feet into the air and putting the North Sumatra region on high alert. The ash shot up as high as 6,500 feet in the air, covering villages and ruining crops. It started early Tuesday and was felt for hours, Sinabung monitoring post officer Muhammad Nurul Asrori told the Jakarta Post.
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"People within the [9-mile radius], both locals and tourists, should be alert to the eruption," Asrori said.
Like Mount Sinabung's last eruption a year ago, experts said Tuesday's has no lava dome.
"Since February 2018, we haven't seen a lava dome in the Sinabung crater. This is why there are no hot clouds," Asrori said.
Karo Disaster Mitigation Agency head Martin Sitepu said four districts were affected by falling ash, which have covered entire plantations. Fire trucks were deployed to help water down the ash off of the crops.
"It will take time to clean up the ash because it's thick and the exposed area is quite large," Sitepu said.
Sinabung was inactive for 400 years until 2010 when it roared back to life. Its deadliest modern eruption occurred in 2014, when 16 people died. Another eruption in 2016 killed seven.
Indonesia is part of the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean, where a belt of tectonic plates have produced about 130 volcanoes.
