Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano maintained a high level of activity for a fifth consecutive day Wednesday, spewing heat clouds and longer trails of lava down its slopes, geologists said.
In the first six hours of Wednesday, Merapi sent 162 lava trails spilling down its slopes, some of them up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) long, according to data released by the vulcanology office in Yogyakarta, south of the peak.
The simmering volcano also spewed deadly heat clouds and sent plumes of smoke 700 meters (2,300 feet) into the air, scientists said.
Scientists have warned that the recent strong earthquake that hit the region between Mount Merapi and the Indian Ocean on Saturday, killing more than 5,800 people, could increase the threat posed by the smouldering volcano.
They warned that the magma dome forming at the peak may crack or collapse, spewing out millions of cubic metres of volcanic rock and lava.
The vulcanology office also recorded 40 aftershocks on Tuesday in the wake of Saturday’s earthquake and 24 in the first six hours of Wednesday, all of them measuring less than 4.0 on the Richter scale.
