Indonesian volcano Mount Merapi erupts sending huge ash cloud into the sky and covering nearby villages in dust

1/9
Bronwen Weatherby3 March 2020

An Indonesian volcano has erupted spewing a huge ash cloud around six thousand metres into the air and covering nearby villages with grey dust.

Mount Merapi, located near the country's cultural capitol Yogyakarta, erupted on Tuesday triggering the closure of an airport in the nearby city of Solo on the densely populated Java island, authorities said.

The volcano is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes and a series of eruptions in 2010 killed more than 350 people and forced the evacuation of 280,000 residents.

A six thousand metre-high ash cloud column has risen into the air and ash mixed with sand has fallen on towns as far as six miles away.

Indonesia's Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation issued a red alert and said the ash cloud was moving north.

The international airport in Solo was temporarily shut at 9.25am local time (02.25 GMT), Indonesia's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

Four flights had been affected. The local disaster mitigation agency warned people to keep out of a 3km exclusion zone around Merapi.

"Outside a 3km radius it's still safe," Biwara Yuswantana, the head of Yogyakarta's disaster mitigation agency, told Reuters. The city is located about 30km from the volcano.

The latest eruption, part of a series that started in 2018, sent up a column of ash that affected several neighbouring areas, the country's Geological Disaster Technology Research and Development Centre said in a statement.

It said the eruption lasted almost eight minutes and warned of a risk of further eruptions due to continuing movements of magma. The 2,930-metre (9612.86 ft) volcano is a popular site for tourists and its fertile soil is also farmed.

Merapi's worst eruption in the last century was in 1930 when it killed 1,300 people. In 1994, another eruption killed 60.

There are almost 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is made up of more than 17,000 islands.

It is located on what is called the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates frequently collide causing earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in