BPBD explains continuing Semeru eruptions: Level III status unchanged for a year

Mount Semeru in East Java continues to erupt, but local authorities say the activity follows the volcano’s established pattern and does not currently warrant an evacuation.

Gatot Soebroto, head of East Java’s Regional Disaster Management Agency, said Semeru has remained at Alert Level III since November 9, 2025. “As for volcanic activity, Semeru always produces eruptions as it does on ordinary days. But this condition has been occurring since 2025 and its status remains Alert Level III,” he said.

The agency continues to coordinate with Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation over safe boundaries for residents near the country’s highest volcano on Java. Gatot said those boundaries had been communicated from the beginning and that residents were carrying out activities in areas considered safe.

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As for volcanic activity, Semeru always produces eruptions as it does on ordinary days. But this condition has been occurring since 2025 and its status remains Alert Level III.

He said there had been no instruction to evacuate or establish shelters. The volcano had shown no worrying increase in activity, he said, so the situation remained consistent with the Level III status that had been in place from the outset.

Monitoring data published by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s Magma Indonesia site recorded three eruptions on Monday, at 4:50 a.m., 1:19 p.m. and 8:35 p.m. The final eruption was recorded on a seismograph with a maximum amplitude of 22 millimeters and a duration of 116 seconds, while no visual eruption was observed. Semeru is one of five Indonesian volcanoes at Level III, below the highest Level IV status. No volcano currently holds Level IV status.

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There is no evacuation, because this is happening as it usually does and there is nothing unusual, since the condition has been at Level III from the beginning.