Mount Merapi cooling down

YOGYAKARTA: There has been a decrease in the activity of Mount Merapi, located between Central Java and Yogyakarta, but the local administration is maintaining its alert status on the volcano in anticipation of further eruptions.

The head of the Yogyakarta Volcano Technological Development and Research Station, Syamsul Rizal, said here on Tuesday the last activity of any note occurred at 9:28 a.m. on Monday, when a cloud of hot gas was discharged over a distance of three kilometers.

Other hot clouds were spewed on Monday, but they were shorter bursts and covered less distance, Rizal said. "Instrumental observation today (Tuesday) doesn't even detect any hot cloud discharge, but lava is still flowing over a distance of three kilometers," Rizal said.

He said that visual observation was impossible due to the thick clouds around the peak of the volcano.

Although the volcanic activities are declining, it was suggested that people living along the slopes of the mountain leave the area and stop quarrying for sand.

According to Rizal, the current conditions could mean one of two things. First, the volcanic activity is really cooling down, or the volcano is "gathering more strength" to explode.

"We do not have any reference, but the two possibilities have happened before," he said. (swa)