Indonesia volcano erupts, spews red-hot lava

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted on Friday, belching out red lava. The volcano, close to Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta on Java Island, had already spewed lava almost two dozen times over the two last days and caused hundreds of minor volcanic quakes, according to a report by Indonesia’s geological agency.

‘This morning, lava avalanches were observed seven times,’ the agency said, with the lava travelling up to 700 metres to the southwest. However, an official warning over the status of the volcano was unchanged at its second highest level, where it has remained since November last year. Nearby residents were told to avoid the area within a five-kilometre radius of the crater and were warned about the lava as well as airborne volcanic material.

Last month, the volcano spewed huge clouds of smoke and ash that billowed down its sides. Mount Merapi’s last major eruption in 2010 killed more than 300 people and forced the evacuation of around 280,000 residents from surrounding areas. That was its most powerful eruption since 1930, when around 1,300 people were killed, while another explosion in 1994 took about 60 lives. The Southeast Asian archipelago nation has nearly 130 active volcanoes.

Indonesian authorities raised the danger level for the volatile Mount Merapi volcano on the densely populated island of Java on November 5, 2020 and ordered a halt to tourism and mining activities. Indonesia’s geological agency raised Merapi’s alert level, which had been at the third-highest level since it began erupting last year, to the second-highest level after sensors picked up increasing activity.

Merapi spewed ash and hot gas in a column as high as 6km into the sky in June, but no casualties were reported. Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people and caused the evacuation of 20,000 villagers. The 2,968-metre mountain is about 30km from the Yogyakarta city centre. About a quarter of a million people live within a 10km radius of the volcano, according to authorities in surrounding districts.