Mount Merapi eruption: Stunning images show Indonesia’s most active volcano erupting

The volcano spewed lava at 70mph, sending molten rock careering 500 metres in just 16 seconds, according to The Research and Technological Development for Geological Disaster Agency (BPPTKG). It would have taken more than 48 seconds for Usain Bolt to run that distance in his prime. Pictures show a florescent red glow streaming down the volcano in the short but powerful eruption.

Mount Merapi is considered one of the most active of Indonesia’s 129 volcanos.

More than 2.4 million reside about 17 miles (28km) south of the volcano site in Yogyakarta city.

Mount Merapi’s last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people.

And in 1930 a major eruption killed about 1,300 people.

Indonesia is incredibly prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its proximity to the Ring of Fire.

The Ring of Fire is a series of fragile fault lines that stretch from New Zealand, all around the east coast of Asia, over to Canada and the USA.

They then stretch all the way down to the southern tip of South America.

Indonesia is the single densest and most active volcanic region in the world.

Volcano Discovery said: “Indonesia leads the world in many volcano statistics.

“It has the largest number of historically active volcanoes (76), its total of 1,171 dated eruptions is only narrowly exceeded by Japan’s 1,274, although not much is know about the volcanic activity in the time before European colonialists arrived from the 15th century on.

“Indonesia has suffered the highest numbers of eruptions producing fatalities, damage to arable land, mudflows, tsunamis, domes, and pyroclastic flows.”

source: express.co.uk