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Evacuations as volcano belches lava
10/02/2001 11:18 - (SA)
Jakarta - Authorities evacuated hundred of villagers on Saturday when Indonesia's Mount Merapi began belching streams of hot lava and clouds of super-heated steam before dawn, vulcanologists said.
There were no reports of injuries among the villagers who live on
the slopes of the 2 914m volcano, which towers over the central plain of East Java.
But ash rain was reported falling on cities as far as 100km away, and authorities had raised the alert to the top danger level of "imminent eruption".
Vucanologist Sunarto, speaking from the Kaliurang outpost on the southwest slope of the volcano, told AFP the activity continued for about three hours and then decreased markedly in intensity at around 7:00am (2400 GMT).
Though violent, he said it could not be considered as an eruption.
"We would only classify it as an eruption if the hot clouds
billowing from the dome go straight up high into the sky, and are
accompanied by a huge explosion," he said.
"What's happening right now is just an outpouring, not an
explosion, because the pressure (from deep under the crater) is
powerful."
"It has calmed down now, but the potential for the volcano to
increase activity is still high."
A new lava dome - christened Dome 2001 - which has built up
inside the old crater in the past two weeks, he said, now contained some one million cubic feet of lava composed of molten rock and sand, and: "We have to keep an eye on the landslide possibility."
Sunarto said that starting between 3.00am and 4.00am, lava and
hot steam - which can reach temperatures of around 900 degrees
Celsius - began to roll down the slopes.
"When that happened we raised the alert level to the top 'Awas
Merapi' - (Beware Merapi) - meaning evacuate," he said.
"There were evacuations in the Lamat village, particularly residents who live on the slopes of the volcano, only nine kilometres from the top.
"Those who were advised to evacuate are residents who live eight
kilometres down the slope," he added, but was unable to give the
total number of evacuees.
"Evacuation also took place for residents along the Sat River,
where it is believed more than 100 people are living.
"Ash rain was also reported in several cities in the eastern side
of the mountain," he said, naming Wonogiri, 100km from the
mountain, Solo, 60km away, Sukoharjo, Klaten and Boyolali.
Health officials said on Tuesday that they had distributed thousands of masks for residents living in three main districts below the volcano.
The masks were particularly needed by some 21 000 residents of Selo sub-district in Boyolali, a town with a population of 965 000.
Until Saturday, Merapi's alert status had remained unchanged since it was raised to the second-highest "be prepared" level on January 10 following increasing volcanic activity.
The Indonesian vulcanology office recognises four danger levels for a volcano - normal, beware, be prepared and alert (Awas) - the last being the signal for an imminent eruption.
Heat clouds killed at least 60 people and forced more than 6 000 to evacuate to safer ground when Merapi last erupted in 1994. Since 1930, Merapi eruptions have killed around 1 300 people. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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