Between September 1 and 5, 2026, Ile Lewotolok erupted 1,873 times. That is roughly one blast every four minutes, around the clock, on Lembata in East Nusa Tenggara. Observer Stanislaus Arakian passed the tally to ANTARA, which reported it from Kupang.
What observers saw
Eruptions reached 200 to 700 meters above the summit. “The ash column from the eruptions was white, gray, and even black,” Arakian said. Avalanches ran up to 700 meters from the summit, heading southeast. White smoke from the main crater climbed 20 to 500 meters, thin at some moments and thick at others, until fog hid the mountain at Level 0-II.
One eruption drew extra attention. At 6:41 a.m. on Sunday, a blast looked as if it had hit 600 meters. Arakian explained that the video came from a guide standing near the crater, which made it seem taller than it was.
The most recent eruption in the report came at 9:35 p.m. Its gray, thick ash column leaned south and west and stayed under 500 meters above the summit, about 1,923 meters above sea level. The seismogram logged a maximum amplitude of 40 mm over roughly 32 seconds.
The seismic record
The monitoring team logged far more than the eruptions themselves.
It counted 663 gust earthquakes, 221 non-harmonic tremors and 14 harmonic earthquakes. There were six hybrid or multiphase quakes, six deep volcanic quakes and four shallow ones. One avalanche earthquake registered, with an amplitude of 40 mm and a duration of 85 seconds. Three distant tectonic earthquakes rounded out the log.
Sources
- Lembata's Ile Lewotolok erupts 1,873 times over five days
- Ile Lewotolok Records 1,873 Eruptions in Five-Day Observation
