New blast at Merapi volcano

MOUNT MERAPI (Indonesia) - DEAFENING explosions of hot gas rattled evacuees kilometres from an Indonesian volcano on Monday, the latest eruption in a deadly week.

The country reported increased rumblings at 21 other active volcanoes, raising questions about what's causing the uptick along some of the world's most volatile fault lines. No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi's new blast, which came as Indonesia struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands.

The two disasters unfolding on opposite ends of the country have killed nearly 500 people and strained the government's emergency response network. In both events, the military has been called in to help. Merapi has killed 38 people since it started erupting a week ago.

Monitoring officials have also raised alert levels at some of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, with two under watch for possible eruption within two weeks and 19 showing increased activity - more than double the usual number on the watch list, an official said.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the western and eastern Pacific. Scientists could not say for certain what was causing the increased volcanic activity, though two theorised the earth's tectonic plates could be realigning and one noted growing evidence that volcanoes can affect one other.

About 69,000 villagers have been evacuated from the area around Merapi's once-fertile slopes - now blanketed by grey ash - in central Java, 400km east of Jakarta, the capital.

 

Source : thestraitstime

Photo   : Google