The Merapi-volcano in Indonesia is 2.911m asl.
It lies in a group of islands that has more active volcanoes than any
other country on this earth.
Of the 130 volcanoes in Indonesia, Merapi is the most active one. It
has had at least 12 eruptions which have forced
loss of human lives. For some unknown reason it produces more hot asheruptions
than any other volcano in the world.
Merapi also called 'Fire-mountain', is looked upon as
a holy mountain.
Every year a priest climbs to the top to give offers.
Closest village is only 5 km away, and in Yogyakarta, 70 km further
south, lives nearly 1.000.000 people.
Monday,
November 30th, 2010
CVGHM reported that avalanches on Merapi's flanks were detected by the
seismic network during 25-30 November. Although fog often prevented
observations, white and brown plumes rising 100 m above the crater drifted
SW on 25 November, and brownish plumes rose 300 m above the crater on
27 November. During 27-30 November, white plumes rose 100-800 m above
the crater and drifted W, SW, N, and E. Incandescence from the crater
was observed through cameras installed at the Merapi museum. According
to news articles, a lahar in the Code River that runs through Yogyakarta,
30 km SSW, flooded streets and damaged bridges, and caused about 1,000
residents to evacuate.
The Alert Level remained at 4, the highest level, on a scale of 1-4.
Wednesday,
November 24th, 2010
More than 130,000 people are living in emergency shelters, well down
on the 320,000 at the height of the disaster,
although the volcano's threat level remains on the maximum "red
alert".
As many as 427 victims of the eruption were still treated at hospitals,
the official said.
Monday,
November 15th, 2010
Rescuers digging through several feet (a meter) of ash discovered nine
more bodies on the slopes of Mount Merapi,
whose explosive eruption a week ago buried whole villages. As confirmation
of more deaths trickled in Sunday,
the toll from a series of blasts at the Indonesian volcano rose to at
least 250.
The mountain, which has let off blasts of hot gas clouds
over the past two days, resumed spewing ash on Sunday as
it as done continuously since it roared to life Oct. 26.
The dangerzone - which has been at 12 miles (20 kilometers)
for more than a week - was relaxed Sunday in some areas.
In districts on the north and west flanks of the mountain, the cordon
is now six miles (10 kilometers) from the crater
Wednesday,
November 10th, 2010
Intensity from Merapi has eased, but volcano is still dangerous. People
are still urged to stay in evacuation centres.
300,000 people hare now displaced. Death toll has reached 191.
Soldiers are now closing roads to the dangerous zone, 20 km from the
crater, to prevent people from returning home.
Again, we urge you to read our web-page: "Who do people live on
volcanoes?"
Read our interesting article about
that here
Monday,
November 8th, 2010
Merapi has continued eruption all the time since Wednesday last week.
During the weekend, airtraffic to and from Jakarta has been disturbed.
On Saturday 36 flights were cancelled, and Sunday 8 more. That airport
is now open again, but many travellers are waitening in the airport.
Yogyakarta however, is still closed.
And that city is now on alert.
More dead bodies have been found by rescuers on the mountain of Merapi,
so far 141 people have been reported dead.
Some source says that nearly 280.000 (?) people now has been forced
to evacuate, or are doing by their own, as they are scared.
Friday,
November 5th, 2010
18:00: Soldiers joined rescue operations in hardest-hit Bronggang,
a village nine miles (15 kilometers) from the crater,
pulling at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up
to one-foot (30-centimeters) deep.
Death tolls now is up to over 120 victims.
More than 150 injured people - most with burns and some
with respiratory problems, broken bones and cuts -
waited to be treated at the Sardjito state hospital, where the bodies
piled up in the morgue, and two other hospitals.
Jakarta Post
11:00: Based on a report from VSI starting at 00:00 to 6:00 am,
the rumbling sound can be heard at a distance
of 30 km from the summit . It was raining ash on the city of Yogyakarta
(radius 30 km) and rained sand (radius 15 km).
Increase in the eruption of material that disgorge Sepanjan
river from the top of Merapi, and high intensity rainfall in the vicinity
of Merapi, leads to the potential flooding in the river of lava and
hot ash..
Number of dead persons this morning has climbed to 58, and bringing
the total over 100 during this past week.
Several more homes are now being evacuated. While the pyroclastic flows
hit homes, clothes, blankets and even mattresses fused the skins of
the people there, by 750°C (1.400 degree Fahrenheit).
Scientists had to move from one of Merapi's monitoring stations, where
they were repairing four of their five
seismographs which had been destroyed earlier this week..
Goverments officials have now told that many of the families whom had
been living on the slopes of Merapi,
never again would be able to return, and they have to find new homes
for them elsewhere on Java.
08:00: Early this morning, local time, a new violent explosion
caused the death of many people.
More than 100 persons are now killed, following the last activity from
the volcano.
One place along the Geldol river, a small village was overflowed with
a mixture of ash and mud from the river.
At least 10 houses were set on fire, and 31 dead bodies were later discovered
there. More persons are missing,
and of course, a lot of people are sent to hospitals with injuries.
This incident happened 18 kilometers from the crater, 3 kilometers outside
the dangerzone.
Government officials are now ordering people in a larger area to evacuate,
and they are even forcing them to flee.
Number of refugees has now exceeded 100.000.
The dangerzone has now been extended to 20 kiilometers from the crater.
Deadly heat clouds and debris were shot high up into the sky this morning,
and heat clouds (pyroclastic flows)
were rolling down the slopes at a distance of more than 10 kilometers
away.
The airport at Yogyakarta was closed as the runaways were covered by
ash.
Thursday,
November 4th, 2010
It was difficult yesterday to determine what was news and what was not,
as news-agencies all over the world are
writing about Merapi, and it is sometimes difficult to see what day
they are referring to.
Meanwhile authorities in the area where more than 70.000 people are
staying in refugeecamps, are now running out of money, and are not able
to give people the help they need.
Still after more violent explosions, 3 more yesterday, lava is running
down the slopes, and gas and smoke fills the air.
This morning another explosion happened, after another booming tremor
and ashcloud.
This last eruption dusted cars, trees and roads in towns up to 130 km
away, and was three times as violent as the first eruption on October
26th.
The danger-zone has now been widened from 10 to 15 kilometers from the
peak. Scientists do not understand what is happening, as pressure inside
the doom had decreased, and then they got this last eruption.
Soldiers are still trying to prevent people from going back to save
their livestock or protect their houses. To day, while rocks and deb
ris rained from the sky, several abandoned homes were set ablaze, and
dead livestocks all over.
Number of persons killed has reached 44, as 6 new people were hit last
24 hours.
Tuesday,
November 2nd, 2010
There
have been more than 10 large eruptions at Merapi since the first eruption
on Oct. 26, including a violent burst Monday that appeared to have eased
pressure inside the crater by creating a vent for magma to escape.
A series of three
much smaller eruptions followed Tuesday.
Mount Merapi spewed out hot clouds of gas and ash again on Monday. Clouds
of hot ash and gas billowed up to 1.5 kilometers into the atmosphere,
before cascading back down up to 4 kilometers around the slopes of Merapi,
as booming explosions were heard, prompting residents to panic and rush
for shelters.
The latest eruption began around 10 a.m. and sent an uninterrupted stream
of smoke clouds into the
air for 40 minutes, heading southward toward a nearby river in Sleman
regency.
The latest explosion took with it an estimated 2 million cubic meters
of rock and earth from the peak, experts say.
Merapis sudden eruption on Monday were unlike its previous eruptions,
as no warning signals had indicated
the eruption would occur.
Based
on data from the disaster coordination team, up to 18,000 people
were taking refuge at shelters on Sunday.
All together nearly 70,000 villagers have evacuated from the
area around Merapis once-fertile slopes
now blanketed by grey ash and they have been told they could
be expected to stay in crowded government camps
for at least three more weeks.
So far this eruption has killed 38 people since springing back to life
just over a week ago.
The eruptions have also affected thousands of schoolchildren. Many children,
suffering trauma from the eruption,
have chosen not to attend school. Meanwhile, the local education office
has yet to set up temporary learning centers at refugee camps. There
are now temporarily closed schools for more than 3,000 students.
Displaced students are encouraged to attend schools close to their shelters,
but this is difficult to follow up because
many of the shelters are located far from the schools.
Based mostly on Jakarta Post
Friday, October 29th, 2010
Another
eruption at 10.00 o'clock this morning - local time. No casualties
so far.
©
Reuter
Lava flows from the crater of Mount Merapi
as seen from Cangkringan, on early Friday.
©
AP/Binsar Bakkara
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Officials
brought cows, buffalo and goats down the mountain so that villagers
wouldn't try to go home to check
on their livestock.
Thursday,
Oktober 28th, 2010
A
burnt house after Mount Merapi erupted at Kinahrejo village in
Sleman, October 27, 2010.
© Xinhua/Reuters)
Blanketed:
Rescue workers evacuate the people from Kinahrejo village, Sleman,
Yogyakarta,
on Wednesday. Volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Merapi blanketed
the village.
©
JP/Indra Harsaputra
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Hot clouds known as wedhus gembel, a Javanese
expression for sheep-shaped pyroclastic
clouds were expelled from the mountain at an estimated speed
of 300 kilometers per hour at a temperature of 600° Celsius.
On Wednesday, the stench of sulfur and dead livestock was in the air
with thick ash covering flattened houses.
About 19,000 residents took refuge in seven shelters in Yogyakarta,
which in all can only accommodate 12,000. Some 30,000 others took to
39 shelters in Magelang. (Map further down the page)
So far, 32 people have been reported dead.
Wednesday,
November 27th, 2010
Number of deaths rises, as the volcano continue spewing out hot ashclouds.
Up to this morning
a total of 28 person have been killed. One was a newsreporter, another
one an Indonsian Red Cross worker.
The other are not yet identified. Rescueworkers are still trying to
evacuate people from the mountainslopes,
but as many have all they own there, they are not willing to leave -
afraid of thefts and damage to their livestock.
Again, one might ask the question: 'Why do people live on volcanoes?"
Though thousands streamed into makeshift emergency shelters after Tuesday's
powerful eruption,
many started returning Wednesday saying they had to tend to their crops
and protect their homes.
Read our interesting article about
that here
Tuesday,
November 26th, 2010
Merapi started erupting this morning, local time, after pressure has
been building up for a long time.
Scientists are afraid its dome could trigger the most powerful eruption
in years.
Huge plumes of hot ash started shooting up into the air, and it lasted
for about 15 minutes.
About 20 people were injured by hot ash, one child died
due to airpollution..
Now one hopes for a quiet release of its power, otherwise a potentially
huge eruption, bigger than anything
we've seen in years, might be what is coming.
Some 11,400 villagers on the mountain were urged to evacuate.
But most who fled were the elderly and children,
while adults stayed to tend to homes and farms on the mountain's fertile
slopes.
From here you can view few of the pictures in our norwegian
version.
Remaining text in norwegian has been deleted.
Missing names on some rivers, - anyone helping?
Semeru-vulkanen
øverst til venstre
Find
out more on the Borobudur-temple here (english)
January
22nd, 2001
Late
last night(foto Reuters) - and night of January
22nd(foto Reuters)
older
pictures
June
14th 1984 a pyroclastic flow down the southwestern slopes.
Photo:Ministry of Public Works (1984)
November
22nd, 1994. 64 people died and 6.000 were moved to new homes..
Some pictures on this page: Photo
and text this page:
Kimberly, P., Siebert, L., Luhr,
J.F., and Simkin, T. (1998). Volcanoes of Indonesia, v. 1.0 (CD-ROM).
Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program, Digital Information
Series, GVP-1.
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Linker:
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VSI - Volcanological
Survey of Indonesia |
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Merapi Volcano Observatory |
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The Indonesian Observer |
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Antara Interaktiv |
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Kompas, newspaper,
partly in english |
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TEMPO interaktif,
newspaper in english |
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Se også vår fotoreportasje med indonesiske vulkaner!
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