Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

Volcanic Activity Forces Airlines to Cancel Flights to Indonesian Capital

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© AP PhotoPassengers enter a terminal as an information screen shows cancelled international flights at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010.
Mount Merapi - International airlines cancelled flights into Indonesia's capital Saturday after a volcano hundreds of kilometres to the east unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century, incinerating villagers as they fled a searing gas cloud.

The number of people killed by Mount Merapi in the past two weeks climbed to 138, as a tiny hospital at the foot of the mountain struggled to cope with survivors, some with burns on up to 95 per cent of their bodies.

The only sign of life in one man, whose eyes were milky grey in colour and never blinked, was the shallow rising and falling of his chest. Others, their lungs choked with abrasive volcanic ash, struggled to breathe.

Indonesia's most volatile mountain unleashed a surge of searing gas, rocks and debris Friday that raced down its slopes at highway speeds, mowing down the slope-side village of Bronggang and leaving a trail of charred corpses in its path.

Bizarro Earth

Cascading volcanic ash sets homes ablaze

Mount Merapi
© Beawiharta / ReutersMount Merapi volcano spews smoke as seen from Sidorejo village in Klaten, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, on Nov. 3. The latest eruption was the biggest yet, causing evacuees to move their shelters even further from the mountain.
Mount Merapi, Indonesia - A deadly surge of blistering gases cascaded down the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano Friday, torching houses in one mountainside village. At least 48 people were killed in the latest inferno and scores of others injured.

Men with ash-covered faces streamed down Mount Merapi on motorcycles followed by truckloads of women and crying children, following the massive eruption just before midnight Friday.

Even staff at the mountain's main monitoring post were told to move farther from the glowing crater.

Hospital spokesman Heru Nugroho said 48 bodies were brought in after the inferno. More than 65 others were injured, many of them critically.

Radar

Indonesia volcano shoots new blast; 21 more rumble

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© ReutersMount Merapi volcano spews smoke as seen from Deles village in Klaten, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta.
Mount Merapi, Indonesia - Deafening explosions of hot gas rattled evacuees miles (kilometers) from an Indonesian volcano Monday, the latest eruption in a deadly week. The country reported increased rumblings at 21 other active volcanoes, raising questions about what's causing the uptick along some of the world's most volatile fault lines.

No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi's new blast, which came as Indonesia struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands. The two disasters unfolding on opposite ends of the country have killed nearly 500 people and strained the government's emergency response network. In both events, the military has been called in to help.

Bizarro Earth

Huge Volcanic Blast Spurs More Indonesians to Flee

Mount Merapi Eruption
© Trisnadi/AP Mount Merapi spews volcanic material as it erupts.
Indonesia's deadly volcano erupted Wednesday with its biggest blast yet, shooting searing ash miles into the sky and forcing hasty new evacuations of panicked people from villages and emergency shelters.

Soldiers loaded men, women and crying children into trucks as rocks and debris hurled in the air and down the mountain's slopes. No new casualties were reported immediately after the booming explosion that lasted more than an hour.

"This is an extraordinary eruption, triple from the first" on Oct. 26, said Surono, a state volcanologist.

Phoenix

Indonesian Volcano Grounds Planes; Evacuated Residents Restless to Go Home

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© VOA Photo - S. SchonhardtEvacuees gather to watch television to stave off boredom
Thousands of Indonesians forced from their homes because of Mount Merapi's continued eruptions are restless to leave the evacuation shelters. And the volcano's ash clouds now are forcing airlines to cancel some flights.

A week after Indonesia's most active volcano began shooting searing gas clouds from its crater, restless evacuees say they are tired of living in hot, cramped shelters. But repeated explosions signal that the volcano, known here as "Fire Mountain," is not ready to let them go home.

Continued blasts have not deterred many families from heading back up the mountain. They go to check on their homes and cattle. At night, they return, packing into overcrowded camps to sleep on thin mats among thousands.

Bizarro Earth

Russia hit by another natural disaster

Volcano eruption
© Press TV
The eruption of two volcanoes in the region of Kamchatka in eastern Russia has blanketed the town of Ust-Kamchatsk in ash.

Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Eurasia's highest active volcano which stands 4,750 meters (15,584 feet) high, started to spew ash on Ust-Kamchatsk on October 22.

Also Sopka Shiveluch began erupting on Thursday spewing ash approximately 6 miles into the air and the streaming down of lava.

More than 5,000 townspeople were forced to stay at home with their windows shut, while all public institutions, schools and businesses remained closed.

Phoenix

Indonesia's Mount Merapi Volcano Erupts Again

Mount Merapi volcano
© Getty ImagesMount Merapi volcano as seen from Balerante village in Klaten, Indonesia, 29 October Mount Merapi is the most active of Indonesia's volcanoes
Mount Merapi volcano has erupted for a third time, with local people reportedly saying this was louder and stronger than the previous eruption on Tuesday.

The latest eruption happened at around 0100 on Saturday (1800GMT Friday).

Agence France Presse reported that it caused panic, with hundreds of people, including police and soldiers, trying to flee in cars or on motorbikes.

Ash was raining down in Yogyakarta, about 30km (19 miles) away.

Matt Burgess, a photography student from Australia, is in Yogyakarta. He told the BBC: "I was in a nightclub when a friend called to say there was a load of ash. I went outside and saw ash falling like snow."

But authorities say Yogyakarta is safe. The head of the monitoring body has said the risk remains lmited to the 10km zone around the mountain.

Nearer that zone, though, people felt more in danger.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia Disaster Toll Hits 377 as Volcano Erupts Again

Mount Merapi, Indonesia
© Reuters/Andry PrasetyoMount Merapi is seen emitting smoke from Sidorejo village, in Klaten, Central Java October 28, 2010, two days after its eruption.
Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted on Thursday for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.

There were no immediate reports of new casualties after Merapi's second eruption. More than 40,000 people had fled or been evacuated from Merapi's slopes earlier in the week, but many started to return after the volcano appeared to become calmer.

Officials said the death toll from a tsunami that hit the remote western Mentawai islands on Monday had reached at least 343. The tsunami was triggered on Monday by a 7.5 magnitude quake. A day later, Mount Merapi on the outskirts of Yogyakarta city on Java island erupted, killing at least 34.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Mount Merapi erupts, thousands flee in panic

Mount Merapi
© UnknownMount Merapi erupted three times on Tuesday, emitting searing clouds and volcanic ash
Mount Merapi erupted three times on Tuesday, emitting searing clouds and volcanic ash, a volcanologist said.

Hot ash rained down from the smoke-covered crater, injuring at least 20 people.

"We heard three explosions around 06:00 pm (1100GMT) spewing volcanic material as high as 1.5 kilometres and sending heat clouds down the slopes," government volcanologist Surono told AFP.

Before the latest eruption, people living in the shadow of Indonesia's most active volcano had been warned to evacuate or risk being killed.

Authorities had put an area 10 kilometres around the crater of Mount Merapi on red alert Monday, ordering 19,000 people to flee.

"This eruption is certainly bigger than the 2006 eruption during which the heat clouds occurred for only seven minutes after the eruption," Surono said.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia struggles as tsunami, volcano tolls rise

damaged building in a village flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami
© AP Photo/Achmad IbrahimThis aerial photo shows a damaged building in a village flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami on Pagai island, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Planes and helicopters packed with rescue workers and supplies landed for the first time Wednesday on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 154 people.
Mentawai Islands - Helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed Wednesday on the remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to rush home to deal with the dual disasters that struck Indonesia within 24 hours, straining the country's ability to respond.

The first aerial surveys of the region hit by the 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami revealed huge swaths of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave. One house lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after an undersea earthquake spawned the killer wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers landed for the first time on the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicenter and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away previously.