16. January 1998

At 11:30 local time, an explosion occurred in the crater area. A survey made by IIV on 17. January revealed that the «usual» pyroclastic material had fallen in the neighbourhood of the craters. However, no sign of lava flows was seen, as had been reported by several newspapers and TV news. The bad weather fortunately had kept away tourists from the summit during the explosion, and rain avoided the risk of big fires on the slopes of the volcano like in previous cases. Sources: Klaus Jäger, Boris Behncke.