14 DAY TRIAL // Last night, a large volcano in Indonesia erupted violently, killing at least three people, and wounding an unspecified number of others. The announcement was made by the Indonesian disaster agency, which also stated that around 76,000 people have been evacuated from areas around the volcano.
Mount Kelud, the volcano in question, has been growing restless over the past few weeks, but there was no way for geologists to determine whether or not it will explode, or when this will happen. As it stands, the eruption occurred on February 14, though an exact time has not been provided.
According to reports from authorities, the mountain spewed massive amounts of ash and dust some 19 kilometers (12 miles) into the sky, and blanketed surrounding areas in a thick layer of ash. Seven airports had to be shut down because of the natural disaster, as visible in the image attached to this article.
Mount Kelud is located on the island of Java, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) away from the second-largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya. The rumble associated with the explosion could be heard up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) away, according to some reports.
The number of initial fatalities could have been significantly larger, but the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency had just asked people within a 10-kilometer (6-miles radius) of Mount Kelud to evacuate the area just hours before the top of the mountain blew up.
The city of Yogyarkarta, located some 220 kilometers (135 miles) west of the volcano, was covered in 5 centimeters (2 inches) of ash. However, the most affected area stretches 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Mount Kelud in all directions.
This eruption comes less than a month after the Mount Sinabung one that occurred in western Sumatra in early February. The explosion of the 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) mountain killed at least 14 people, according to authorities, though an exact death toll may never be produced.
Before the eruption in 2013, Mount Sinabung had remained inactive for nearly 400 years. Indonesia is extremely prone to suffering volcanic activity that comes out of the blue, since it lies on top of the Pacific Ring of Fire, as does Japan, and the western coasts of North America, NPR reports.