Indonesia’s most volatile volcano erupts again

Yogyakarta, Indonesia  — Indonesia’s most volatile volcano spewed smoke and ash early Monday in the latest of several eruptions in less than two weeks.

Mount Merapi on the main island of Java erupted twice, sending a column of volcanic material up to 1,200 meters (3,930 feet) into the air and making ash fall in several villages, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the disaster mitigation agency spokesman.

He said the alert level of the volcano was not raised, which is at a normal level with no eruption expected in the foreseeable future.

An eruption of Merapi on May 11 sent nearby residents fleeing to safer areas. There have been no reports of casualties, and operations at Adi Sucipto airport in Yogyakarta was not disturbed by Monday’s eruptions.

The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) mountain between Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces is the most active of 500 Indonesian volcanoes. Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people and caused the evacuation of 20,000 villagers.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 240 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.