Mount Merapi Activity Intesifies

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, intensified its activity this weekend. At 5:40am on Monday (local time), part of the lava dome at the summit collapsed, sending ash flows 2.5 miles down the mountain.

From Reuters:

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano exploded with clouds of hot gas and ash rain early on Monday, sending some villagers who had been reluctant to leave scurrying for safety.

Gray ash covered some vegetation and rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10 kms (six miles) from the base of the mountain, and many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated.

YouTube has a BBC video posted that shows an impressive shot of lava flowing down the mountain a few nights ago.

EDIT: Some corrections. Pyroclastic flows only travelled about 2 miles down the mountain, not 6 as I originally wrote!

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