Via his Eruptions blog, Erik Klemetti writes: Eruption Update for January 16, 2014: Sinabung and Nishinoshima. Click through for the full post and more links. Excerpt:
The eruption at Sinanbung is still going strong and, if anything, getting stronger. Reports from the area detail a constant parade of pyroclastic flows and explosions (see above) as the dome at the summit continues to grow and collapse.
You can watch some video of the pyroclastic flows (taken by people likely getting far too close to these very fast moving volcanic hazards). The explosion count over the past few days has been in the dozens per day — and can see video of the activity and the results of the ash fall from these eruptions.
The plume itself is consistently reaching 5 km (~16,000 feet) while the the pyroclastic flows are running outwards from the volcano to almost 5 km as well.
The current tally of evacuees is over 26,000 and the Indonesian government announced today that they will be permanently relocating settlements that were within 3 km of Sinabung.
Thus far, the eruption is estimated to have caused almost $60 million of damage to the croplands around the volcano as well, and one can imagine that damage to infrastructure and houses will far exceed that total. You can see the eruption as it continues on the PVMBG webcam pointed at Sinabung.
