Indonesia’s Merapi volcano unleashes river of lava

Incandescent lava flows from Mount Merapi’s crater on Tuesday as seen from Klangon Hill in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta. The volcano has expelled 439,000 cubic meters of lava at a rate of 3,400 cubic meters per day since Jan. 10, according to the Yogyakarta office of the Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Agency. The Jakarta Post

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s volatile Mount Merapi volcano has unleashed a river of lava that flowed 1,400 meters (4,590 feet) down its slopes.

Merapi, on the island of Java, has entered an “effusive eruption phase,” Kasbani, head of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center, said Wednesday.

Kasbani, who goes by a single name, said the volcanic material that spewed out late Tuesday was the volcano’s longest lava flow since it began erupting again in August.

He said the alert level of the volcano has not been raised but people should stay out of a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) danger zone around the crater.

The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) mountain, located near the ancient Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, is the most active of dozens of Indonesian volcanoes.

Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 260 million people, is prone to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions because it straddles the Pacific “Ring of Fire.” /gsg