Mount Merapi
Mount Merapi
Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano, shot out 72 ash columns this weekend, with authorities declaring a 3km danger zone, and fears of a 'lava lake' forming.

Indonesia's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, has spewed ash columns 3000 metres into the sky, local media report.

Indonesia's Geological Disaster Research and Development Centre said by Saturday, Merapi had emitted 72 ash columns from its crater since it started showing signs of forming ash columns and spewing incandescent lava in late January, state news agency Antara reported.

Agency head Hanik Humaida said based on the ash-column activity, the volcano's lava dome could potentially cause a lava avalanche of 458,000 cubic metres in volume that would move up to 3 kilometres from the crater toward the river Gendol.


The agency also reported multiphase and low frequency tremors occurring at the crater of the volcano, which is a popular hiking spot on the border of Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces.

"Based on those volcanic activities, the volcano status remains on caution alert level. A 3-kilometre radius exclusion zone from the crater remains in place and tourist objects outside the exclusion zone are safe for tourists to visit," Humaida said.

The 2968-metre high Merapi's last deadly eruption was in 2010 and its last major eruption, which caused people within a 5km radius to vacate the area and Yogyakarta's airport to close, was in 2018.

Source: AAP