Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate
A resident rides a motorcycle past a street as Mount Merapi spews volcanic materials in the background, seen from Cangkringan village in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters. No casualties were reported. Credit: AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi

Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters and left ash blanketing nearby villages and towns. No casualties were reported.

The volcano on the densely populated island of Java unleashed clouds of hot ash at least seven times just before and after midnight and fast-moving pyroclastic flows, a mixture of rock, lava and gas, traveled up to 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) down its slopes, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency's spokesperson Abdul Muhari in a statement. The rumbling sound could be heard several kilometers (miles) away.

He said 253 people were evacuated to temporary shelters in Glagaharjo and Umbulharjo villages in Yogyakarta special province and in Central Java's Klaten district because of the dangers on Merapi.

Ash from the blanketed several nearby villages and towns and no casualties were reported, Muhari said.

Residents living on Merapi's fertile 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, Indonesia's Geology and Volcanology Research Agency said.

Mount Merapi is the most active of more than 120 in Indonesia and has repeatedly erupted with lava and gas clouds recently. The Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center did not raise Merapi's alert status, which already was at the second-highest of four levels since it began erupting last November.

  • Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate
    Lava flows down from the crater of Mount Merapi seen from Pakembinangun village in Sleman, Central Java, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters. No casualties were reported. Credit: AP Photo/Ranto Kresek
  • Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate
    Mount Merapi spews volcanic materials seen from Cangkringan village in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters. No casualties were reported. Credit: AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi
  • Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate
    A man rides a motorcycle past a street with Mount Merapi covered in fog in the background, seen from Cangkringan village in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters. No casualties were reported. Credit: AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi
  • Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate
    Lava flows down from the crater of Mount Merapi seen from Pakembinangun village in Sleman, Central Java, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters. No casualties were reported. Credit: AP Photo/Ranto Kresek

The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) peak is near Yogyakarta, an of several hundred thousand people embedded in a large metro area. The city is also a center of Javanese culture and a seat of royal dynasties going back centuries.

Merapi's 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 because it sits along the "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

Its last major eruption was in December, when 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.

© 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Citation: Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate (2022, March 10) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-indonesia-mount-merapi-erupts-multiple.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Lava streams from Indonesia's Mount Merapi in new eruption

32 shares

Feedback to editors