Indonesia’s Mount Merapi continued to erupt Friday, forcing authorities to halt tourism and mining activities on the slopes of the country’s most active volcano.
The volcano on the densely populated island of Java unleashed clouds of hot ash shortly before midnight Wednesday into early morning Thursday and fast-moving pyroclastic flows — a mixture of rock, lava and gas — traveled up to 5 kilometers down its slopes.
It was Mount Merapi’s biggest lava flow since authorities raised its danger level in November 2020, said Hanik Humaida, the head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.
Dozens of light eruptions continued during the day Thursday with a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing 2.5km down its slopes.
No casualties were reported. About 253 people were evacuated to temporary shelters but they returned to the volcano’s fertile slopes after the activity subsided, Humaida said.
Authorities have closed at least five tourism attractions located within the danger zone of 5km from the crater and halted mining activities along the volcano’s rivers, Humaida said. Activities out of the danger zone remained open.
Mount Merapi is the most active of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia and has repeatedly erupted with lava and gas clouds recently.
