Merapi News

 

A massive eruption occurred at the volcano shortly after noon today. At around 12.15 p.m. local time, a very large glowing avalanche, known as pyroclastic flow, descended from the active lava dome at the summit crater.

The extremely dangerous, fast-moving turbulent flow consists of a mixture of hot rock fragments of the lava dome, volcanic gasses and ambient air. It traveled through the Bebeng/Krasak ravine on the southeastern flank and reached a distance of estimated 7 km distance from the summit, meaning close to populated areas. It also produced massive ash plumes that affected much of the southern flank and caused panic in some villages.

There are no reports of fatalities or injuries at the moment although information is yet incomplete from what might have happened in the areas hit by the flow.
Pyroclastic flows are typically formed when the accumulated lava masses at the summit crater, known as the lava dome, become too large and suffer smaller or larger gravitational collapse, which then turn into fast and deadly avalanches as they destroy and burn everything in their path.

Whether today's eruption is related to an increase of activity of the volcano, i.e. an increase in magma supply, is not known; it is possible, but not a necessary condition for the observed flow that came as a surprise because in the past weeks and months, the volcano had been producing pyroclastic flows of much smaller size rather regularly. Even if the internal activity at the volcano is low, such larger events can even occur unexpectedly at any time and pose the most serious hazard for anyone being close to the volcano.