Yogyakarta: The most active volcano in Indonesia erupts Monday with the largest lava flow in a few months, sending the Lava River and a burning gas cloud that flows 3.5 kilometers (more than 2 miles) lowering its slope on the solid island of Java.
The roar could be heard a few kilometers (miles) like Mount Merapi erupted, sending 600 meters of heat (almost 2,000 feet) into the sky.
Ash enveloped the nearest cities, but an evacuation order that had long stood in a place near the volcano, and there were no victims reported.
It was the flow of lava the largest of Merapi because the authorities raised the danger level last November, said Hanik Humida, Head of the Geological Mitigation and Geological Mitigation Center Yogyakarta.
He said the lava dome was right under RIM southwest of Merapi and the Dome Lava in the crater was equally active since the end of July.
The volume of the Southwest Rim RIM is estimated at 1.8 million cubic meters (66.9 million cubic feet) and a height of about 3 meters (9.8 feet) before partly collapsed Monday morning, sending the pyroclastic flow to run quickly on the southwest side of at least twice.
The smaller pyroclastic flow of grilled gas and lava travels 1.5 kilometers (one mile) southwest at least twice as much on that day.
The peak of 2,968 meters (9,737 feet) is near Yogyakarta, an ancient city of several hundred thousand people embedded in the large metro area on the island of Java.
The city is the center of Javanese culture and the royal dynastic seat will return for centuries.
The warning status of Merapi has been at the second highest of four levels since it began to erupt last November, and the Hazaran mitigation center and Hazard Geology Indonesia had not raised it despite volcanic activity last week.
These four levels describe eruption activities such as normal, small, moderate or large.
People are advised to stay 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the mouth of the crater and to be careful of the dangers of lava, the agency said.
Ash of eruptions covered several villages and nearby cities, Humida said.
Cloudy weather blurs the peak scenery.
Mount Merapi is the most active of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia and has repeatedly erupted with lava and gas clouds recently.
The authorities in November have evacuated nearly 2,000 people living on fertile mountain slopes in Magelang and Sleman Regency and around 550 more in January, but most have returned.
The last big eruption of Merapi in 2010 killed 347 people and caused an evacuation of 20,000 villagers.
Indonesia, an archipelago 270 million, is susceptible to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of sitting along “fire fire rings, ” a series of seismic fault lines in the form of horseshoes around the ocean.