Indonesian volcano Mount Merapi erupts spewing avalanches of gas clouds and lava
Indonesia’s Mount Merapi has erupted, spewing avalanches of searing gas clouds and lava, and blanketing surrounding villages in ash.
The eruption forced authorities to halt tourism and mining activities on the slopes of the country’s most active volcano.
Merapi, on the densely populated island of Java, unleashed clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas that travelled up to 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) down its slopes on Saturday.
A column of hot clouds rose 100 metres into the air, the National Disaster Management Agency said.
The eruption throughout the day blocked out the sun and sent ash billowing over nearby villages. No casualties have been reported.
It was Merapi’s biggest lava flow since authorities raised the alert level to the second-highest in November 2020, said Hanik Humaida, the head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.
She said residents living on Merapi’s slopes were advised to stay 7km (4.3 miles) away from the crater’s mouth and be aware of the danger posed by lava.
Mt Merapi is a 2,968-metre (9,737-foot) mountain, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Yogyakarta, an ancient centre of Javanese culture and the seat of royal dynasties going back centuries. About a quarter-million people live within 10 km (6 miles) of the volcano.
Merapi is the most active of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia and has repeatedly erupted with lava and gas clouds recently. Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people and displaced 20,000 villagers.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
An eruption in December 2021 of Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on Java island, left 48 people dead and 36 missing.
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