Merapi is finicky these days. Three and four months after its last two eruptions, this Indonesian volcano, one of the most active in the world, erupted again on Sunday, projecting gray ash clouds at 6000 meters above sea level.
Two successive eruptions occurred in seven minutes, according to the local geological agency. Local authorities have urged people to evacuate an area three kilometers around the crater north of Yogyakarta on the island of Java.
As in March, the agency did not raise the alert level of the volcano after the eruptions but urged the planes circulating in the area to the greatest caution. Local media reports say that residents of nearby Sleman and Klaten had heard rumbles from the volcano in the morning.
Merapi today ... pic.twitter.com/wp4s4GQvX2
- Yaelahabah (@abahkuu) June 21, 2020Deadly eruptions
The last major Merapi eruption in 2010 killed more than 300 people and forced more than 280,000 people to evacuate. It was the most powerful eruption since that of 1930 which had left some 1,300 people dead. An eruption in 1994 also claimed 60 lives.
The archipelago of Southeast Asia has more than 17,000 islands and islets and nearly 130 active volcanoes. Indonesia is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the friction of the tectonic plates causes frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.