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Papua New Guinea Volcano Erupts Just Before Dawn

By Zachary Volkert
Published on: 21:21 PST, Aug 28, 2014

Papua New Guinea was the site of volcanic activity early Friday morning just before dawn. Mount Tavurvur, on East New Britain Island, erupted to what seems to be no injuries or fatalities, according to The Guardian. Photos are currently being posted by Twitter users to document the volcano’s eruption and subsequent damage to Papua New Guinea.

Although it seems that destruction is minimal compared to the largest eruption in Papua New Guinea in 1994, Rabaul Hotel employee Susie McGrade told ABC Radio that there will still be recovery work to get done this morning.

“People still live here; we have to get on with our daily lives. We’re up on the roofs, cleaning off the ash, we’ve got to save our property, try and get back to normal, so what can we do? We’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Australian airline Qantas announced that flights are being diverted to avoid the cloud of smoke that is currently filling the sky in the area over Papua New Guinea.

“Flight paths between Sydney and Narita [Tokyo] and Sydney and Shanghai have been altered as a result of the volcanic ash cloud over Rabaul in eastern Papua New Guinea. QF21, QF22 and QF130 will now fly over central Papua New Guinea to avoid the cloud.”

Mount Tavurvur is quite active compared to other regional volcanos. Since 1994, it has had eruptions in 2011, 2010, 2006, 2005 and 2002.

Updates will be added to this article as news of Papua New Guinea’s volcanic eruption emerges.

[Image via Twitter]

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