JAKARTA, 11 February 2019: Two volcanoes in Indonesia spewed fresh lava down their slopes, in the latest of several eruptions in less than two weeks.
Officials said on Friday that Mount Merapi on the main island of Java spewed hot clouds and lava that flowed 2 000 metres down its slopes late on Thursday.
Hours earlier, Mount Karangetang, on Sulawesi’s Siau island, sent lava and searing gas out of its crater, prompting evacuation preparations.
An estimated 1,000 residents were on alert to leave their homes in surrounding the mountain. However, authorities have now expanded the danger zone to 4 km from 3 km from its crater.
The huge volcano erupted two years ago, which sent ash spewing into the sky. The eruption caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled, leaving more than 120,000 people stranded.
At the weekend Channelnews Asia reported that on-going volcanic activity at Mount Merapi raises concern, while authorities continue to enforce a 5 km no-go zone around the crater near Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta.
Its last major eruption in 2010 more than 300 people died and some 280,000 others were evacuated to safety. It was Merapi’s most powerful eruption since 1930, which killed some 1,300 people, while another explosion in 1994 took about 60 lives.
Meanwhile, The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to advise people not to travel within 4 km of the Mount Agung crater in east Bali, which has been erupting continuously since 2017.
Indonesia, home to 130 active volcanoes, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin
