Indonesia raises alert status of Java's Merapi volcano to top level

Mon, 25 Oct 2010

Jakarta - Indonesian authorities on Monday upgraded the status of the Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java province to the highest level, ordering thousands of residents in the danger zones to leave their homes.

Febri, a volcanologist at the nearby city of Yogyakarta who like many Indonesians uses only by one name, said the lava flow from Merapi extended about 4 kilometers south and west from the crater.

Local authorities were ordered to immediately evacuate villagers from the endangered areas. Subandrio, the head of the Yogyakarta's Volcano Investigation and Technology Development Institute, estimated that up to 40,000 people were living in the endangered areas.

An official in the Dukun subdistrict of Magelang district confirmed that his office had received the notice and evacuation of 5,000 residents was under way.

An official in the Sleman district said evacuation had started an hour after the volcano's status was raised to alert level, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

The expansion of the volcano's slopes was much more rapid this time than with previous activity, indicating a higher-pressure build-up of gas, Surono, head of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency, said Sunday, adding that officials were, therefore, preparing for a much more explosive eruption compared with Merapi's latest eruption in 2006.

"We believe Merapi will erupt explosively as it did in 1930 and not just spew gas like in 2006," The Jakarta Globe quoted Surono as saying.

The volcano's most deadly eruption took place in 1930 when 1,370 people were killed. At least 66 people were killed in a 1994 eruption, mostly from the outpouring of superheated hot ash and other volcanic materials. Merapi last erupted in June 2006, killing two people.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350202,merapi-volcano-top-level.html.