Indonesia's Most Dangerous Volcano Continues to Erupt

Mount Merapi erupts seen from Klaten, Indonesian 04 November 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Indonesia's most dangerous volcano Mount Merapi erupted again Thursday spewing clouds of hot ash up to 8 km in the air, the Washington Post has reported.

"It looks like we may be entering an even worse stage. We have no idea what's happening now," said Surono, a state volcanologist, as cited by the Washington Post.

Indonesian officials are continuing to evacuate people and have widened to 15 km the evacuated regions near the volcano, which entered a phase of continual eruptions on October 26 and is not showing signs of settling down.

Lava flows from Mount Merapi had spread to 9 km down the slopes of the volcano, which height is 2,914 m. No new casualties have been reported.

Residents in town up to 240 km away said trees, cars and roads were blanketed in heavy gray ash.

About 40 people have died since the first eruption of Mount Merapi a week ago. There have been more than a dozen strong eruptions since then and thousands of volcanic tremors and ash bursts.

Merapi is one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes in Indonesia and has produced more lava flows than any other volcano in the world. It has been active for 10,000 years and has registered eruptions on average every four years.

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