Guwahati: Indonesia’s most active volcano Mount Merapi has erupted forcing officials to halt mining and tourism on its slopes and covering nearby villages in smoke and ash.
The Yogyakarta special region volcano in Indonesia erupted on Saturday at around 12 p.m. (05:00 GMT) sending clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas up to 4.3 miles (or seven kilometres) down its slopes.
The Public Disaster reported that a section of heated mists reached 100 metres very high, said an executive organisation representative Abdul Muhari. No immediate reports of losses were made.
The explosion kept the sun hidden all day. As many as eight nearby villages have been impacted by volcanic ash, according to an officer at one of Merapi’s monitoring posts.
Images published by the local channel Kompas TV showed a town on Java Island close to the volcano with ash-covered roads and residences.
Merapi which rises 2,963 metres or 9,721 feet to a height of 9,721 feet is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes. Its most recent big eruption in 2010 which resulted in more than 300 fatalities, prompted the evacuation of 280,000 residents.
The strongest eruption of Merapi since 1930 claimed the lives of about 1,300 people on Saturday. In 1994, about 60 people died in an eruption.
The volcano’s alert status has remained at its second-highest level since 2020 despite showing signs of increasing activity.
On Indonesia’s Pacific Ring of Fire where tectonic plates collide and cause significant volcanic and seismic activity which are close to 130 active volcanoes.