Indonesia’s Merapi volcano expels rivers of incandescent lava
Jakarta, Jan 6 (efe-epa).- The Mount Merapi volcano, located in the central region of the Indonesian island of Java, expelled rivers of incandescent lava late Tuesday and recorded an increase in activity that has prompted local authorities to raise the volcano’s alert level.
The eruption, accompanied by small earthquakes lasting more than two minutes, caused at least 23 avalanches along the hillside, the Geological Agency (GA) of Indonesia said in a statement Wednesday.
The activity of the volcano, which is located about 400 kilometers (248 miles) southwest of Jakarta, began to increase on Thursday, according to the agency’s records, which indicates that Mount Merapi may have entered a phase of volcanic eruption.
The Geological Agency’s director, Hanik Humaira, asked those living near the volcano to remain vigilant in the face of the volcano’s growing activity and has established a security perimeter of up to 5 kilometers around the crater around it.
The 2,968-meter (9,738 feet) Mount Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and the most active volcano in the Asian country.
It is located on the border between the special region of Yogyakarta and the province of Central Java.
The last major eruption of the volcano in 2010 killed 347 people and nearly 400,000 had to be evacuated, including 3,000 families that had to be permanently relocated.
The Indonesian archipelago sits in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of great seismic activity with 127 active volcanoes and which is shaken by thousands of tremors a year, most of them of low magnitude. EFE-EPA
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