(11 Mar 2023)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Krinjing Village, Yogyakarta, Indonesia - 11 March 2023
1. Wide zoom in of hot clouds and volcanic material soaring into air
2. Mid of Dukun village with zero visibility due to being covered in volcanic ash
STORYLINE:
Indonesia’s Merapi volcano erupted Saturday, spewing avalanches of searing gas clouds and hot lava down its rivers, forcing authorities to halt tourism and mining activities on the slopes of the country’s most active volcano.
Mount Merapi on the densely populated island of Java, unleashed clouds of hot ash and fast-moving pyroclastic flows - a mixture of rock, lava and gas. It traveled up to 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) down its slopes, and spewed a column of hot clouds rising 100 meters (yards) into the air with avalanches of incandescent lava from the crater at least 9 times, said National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari.
The sudden eruption continued during the day, blocking out the sun, and several villages were blanketed with falling ash, but no casualties have been reported.
According to Hanik Humaida, the head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center, it was Mount Merapi’s biggest lava flow since authorities raised its danger level in November 2020.
She said residents living on Merapi’s slopes were advised to stay 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) away from the crater’s mouth and should be aware of the danger posed by lava.
The geological authority had raised the alert level of Mount Merapi to the second-highest of four levels since it began erupting in November 2020 and sensors picked up increasing activity. Tourism and mining activities were halted on Sunday.
The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) mountain is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Yogyakarta, an ancient city and a center of Javanese culture and a seat of royal dynasties going back centuries, while about a quarter million people live within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the volcano, according to authorities in surrounding districts.
Mount 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 caused the evacuation of 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.
In December 2020, Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on Java island, erupted with fury and left 48 people dead and 36 missing in villages that were buried in layers of mud. Several of the injured had serious burns, and the eruption damaged 5,200 houses and buildings.
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