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The volcano, located in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta special region, erupted at about 12pm (05:00 GMT) on Saturday and unleashed clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas that travelled up to seven kilometres (4.3 miles) down its slopes. A column of hot clouds rose 100 metres into the air, said the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari. There were no immediate reports of casualties. At least eight villages near the volcano have been affected by volcanic ash... Kompas TV showed ash-covered houses and roads at a village near the volcano, located on Java Island. The 2,963...

Horror scenes greeted rescuers arriving at villages near Mount Merapi after the Indonesian volcano's worst eruption in a century last night sent the death toll soaring to 122.

Der Spiegel reports on the growling-ever-louder Indonesian Merapi volcano in an article titled: Geologists Warning of Mega-Eruption of Merapi."The Merapi eruptions are becoming more violent – and the big bang could be just ahead. The Indonesian volcano has been spewing 800°C ash clouds for days." According to Der Spiegel, 122 people have been killed, most on Friday. “Merapi is among the most dangerous volcanoes,” says geo-scientist Volker Steinbach of the German Federal Administration for Geoscience and Raw Materials (BGR). Der Spiegel adds: "Friday’s eruption is its worst this decade, says the chief geologist of the Energy Administration, Raden Sukhyiar, in...

Indonesia's deadly volcano unleashed another powerful eruption Monday, spewing searing clouds of gas and ash thousands of feet into the air to the sound of a booming explosion. There were no immediate reports of new casualties. On the other side of seismically charged country, a break in weather was helping rescuers get aid to victims of a tsunami that slammed into several remote islands, sweeping entire villages to sea. The twin disasters, which occurred almost simultaneously one week ago, have together killed nearly 500 people. Mount Merapi, among 20 mountains now rumbling and spitting out ash in Indonesia, is one...

Indonesia's Merapi Volcano Erupts Published October 26, 2010 | Associated Press MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – DEVELOPING: Volcano Merapi erupted Tuesday on Indonesia's Java island, according to a volcanologist. Earlier in the day, Indonesia's most volatile volcano groaned and rumbled, leading scientists to warn that pressure building beneath its lava dome could trigger one of the most powerful blasts in years. Thousands of residents living on its slopes were moved to temporary camps. An avalanche of rocks spilled down Mount Merapi's trembling slopes before dawn and gusts of hot ash shot 150 feet (50 meters) into the air. "The energy is...

A couple of weeks ago I posted some Merapi eruption photos (actually, it think it was Mayon; I did find some earlier pictures of pyroclastic flows on Merapi). I noted how difficult it was to find good pictures of the recent activity (still true; most of the photos weren't that great). Well... I found some good great ones. A couple are below; go to the link for the full set.

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Two men who sought shelter from erupting Mount Merapi in an emergency bunker on the fiery slopes of the volcano were found dead Friday, officials said. The men fled to the steel shelter on Wednesday while they helped to evacuate a village during a burst of volcanic activity. The bunker was later covered with up to 6 feet of red-hot debris. Soldiers in fire-retardant clothing reached the men after digging through the debris with shovel and backhoes, said Widi Sutikno, head of volcano relief operations. "The bodies were burned because of the hot temperatures in the...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Rescuers dug through volcanic debris Thursday to reach two people trapped when Indonesia's most volatile volcano erupted, nearly enveloping a village with a searing gas cloud and forcing thousands of residents to flee. The eruption Wednesday came just a day after officials lowered the alert level and people returned to the homes around Mount Merapi. "The situation is ... life-threatening," said Yousana Siagian, head of the government's Vulcanology and Disaster Mitigation Center, after the alert level for Mount Merapi was raised to its highest status again and it dumped thick ash on scores of houses. On...

MOUNT MERAPI (AFP) - Indonesia has downgraded its top alert on Mount Merapi volcano as scientists said they no longer believe an eruption is imminent. Merapi -- whose name means "Mountain of Fire" -- was put on red alert on May 13 and its activity has fluctuated since then. It has declined substantially since Friday when part of a lava dome forming at its peak collapsed. "The activity status of Merapi is downgraded from 'beware' to 'standby' as of June 13, 2006, at 11:00 am," said Yousana Siagian, head of the vulcanology office in West Java's Bandung, in a statement....

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Mount Merapi's unstable lava dome has partially collapsed, easing pressure that threatened to make the Indonesian volcano erupt. However, the mountain remains as the "highest possible alert," volcanologist Antonius Ratdomopurbo said on Monday. "We should know within two days whether we can lower the (alert) level," Ratdomopurbo said. The mountain has been venting steam and debris for weeks, but its lava dome swelled after a powerful May 28 earthquake, raising concerns the dome could suddenly collapse, sending scalding gas, rocks and debris hurtling into populated areas. A huge, superheated cloud, the largest this year, brought down...

Krakatoa -- Volcano of Destruction premieres 9 PM ET/PT on the Discovery Channel!! If you click this link: Beyond: Volcanoes a player will load with links to four videos; the first will play automatically. The 2nd, "Lava Junkies", is pretty good. The 4th, "Ultimate Guide to Volcanoes: Montserrat" is amazing. It's four minutes long; the final minute has an astonishing sequence in it. Sorry that I don't know a way to skip the commercial preceding it.

Hot clouds again billowed down the slope of Mount Merapi Thursday morning over a distance of five kilometers in the direction of the upper reach of Gendol River, thus burning down northern part of Kaliadem forest area in the district of Sleman, Yogyakarta. The volcano erupted more than 10 times from 06:00 to 09:00 Thursday morning. Eruption of hot air had lasted for 25 minutes since 07:20 (0020 GMT). Such a long distance of hot clouds moving down from the mount's crater burning some forest areas in Kaliadem, but no casualty was reported in the disaster, official news agency Antara...

JAKARTA (AFP) - Thousands of people have evacuated from the slopes of Indonesia's menacing Mount Merapi as lava flows spread further around the slopes of the volcano, officials have said. The volcano was put on red alert -- indicating a feared imminent eruption -- on May 13 but residents have been particularly nervous since a deadly earthquake rocked the region 10 days ago. A natural ridge formed by an eruption early in the last century and known as Geger Boyo which had so far helped contain larger lava flows to the southwest and west of the mountain has collapsed, they...

BANTUL, Indonesia - The Mount Merapi volcano spewed lava and hot clouds Saturday and a strong aftershock hit the region, sending fear rippling through the southern Indonesian area devastated by an earthquake only a week ago. The mountain's lava dome has swelled in the past week to 330 feet, raising fears that it could collapse, said Subandriyo, a government scientist who uses one name. That could release a highly dangerous pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving burst of high-temperature gases and rock fragments that burns anything in its path. More than a thousand aftershocks have hit the region since the 6.3-magnitude...

Back to Story - Help Indonesia earthquake kills nearly 450 By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago A powerful earthquake flattened buildings in central Indonesia early Saturday, killing nearly 450 people, injuring thousands of others and leaving hospitals appealing for help. The magnitude 6.2 quake struck at 5:54 a.m. near the southwest of the city of Yogyakarta, 250 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, as many people slept, causing death and damage there and in at least two other nearby towns, officials said. In the chaos that followed the quake, rumors of an impending tsunami sent thousands of...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Lava streamed down the sides of Indonesia's mystical Mount Merapi on Tuesday, but the clouds of hot gas belching from the top were substantially smaller than the day before. Around the base of the mountain some Indonesians consider sacred, thousands of residents went about their daily lives such as milking cows and collecting grass for feed despite warnings a major eruption could come soon. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on a visit to the threatened area, urged officials to be persistent in their efforts to move people away from the danger zone and warned residents not...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Scientists warned Tuesday that erupting Mount Merapi still posed a deadly threat to villagers living on its lava-scarred slopes, even as volcanic activity eased. Clouds of searing hot gases and debris continued to stream down the mountain, but not as far or as often as they did Monday, which saw the most violent activity in several weeks. "That is Merapi," said Ratdomopurbo, the region's chief vulcanologist, who uses a single name. "She is always fluctuating." A large, unstable lava dome perched on the crater formed by magma from within the volcano remained in place and could...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Mount Merapi erupted violently Monday, sending searing gas clouds and burning rocks down its scorched flanks and threatening villagers who refused to leave because of ancient mystical beliefs. The activity triggered renewed panic and fresh evacuations of some closest to the crater, but others ignored urgent warnings to leave. The volcano in the heart of densely populated Java Island had been rumbling for weeks, spewing ash high into the air and pushing lava to the surface, where it has formed a large unstable dome. On Saturday, authorities declared the highest danger alert, triggering mandatory evacuations for...

SINGAPORE: Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano has erupted, according to Antara news agency. The volcano, active since last April, erupted at 0540 am local time (2240 GMT Sunday), the Indonesian national news agency said. Other details weren't immediately available. Weeks before the eruption, there had been intense activity at the 2,914-metre (9,560-foot) peak in the densely-populated Central Java province. Blazing lava had been oozing down the slopes of Merapi and on Saturday, vulcanologists raised Merapi's alert status, triggering the evacuation of thousands of people from its fertile slopes. But many others had been defying orders for a mandatory evacuation and...

PURWOBINAGUN, Indonesia (Reuters) - Dozens of Indonesian villagers returned to their homes on the slopes of Mount Merapi briefly on Sunday despite an official order to evacuate over concerns the dangerous volcano could soon erupt. Indonesia raised the alert status of Merapi to the highest level, also known as code red or danger status, on Saturday, although experts say they cannot predict when it will erupt. Thick clouds of charcoal gray smoke billowed periodically from the crater on Sunday, but there were no visible signs of hot lava flowing from Merapi, one of the most menacing volcanoes in the Pacific...