Glowing avalanches from the Merapi’s SW lava dome continue (image: Andi/VolcanoDiscovery Indonesia)
Andi, our expedition guide and leader for VolcanoDiscovery Indonesia, is still on-site and provides first-hand information about the intense activity at Merapi.
It seems that the situation has been gradually worsening over the past 24 hours as a number of glowing rock falls emanating from the southwestern lava dome has picked up. This presumably reflects continuing, pressurized, i.e. gas-rich magma under the surface which accumulates into the dome, meaning more and more unstable hot lava material is prone to collapse into incandescent lava blocks. Pyroclastic flows continue to tumble down along the southwestern, occasionally southern slope, reaching length at about 2 km from the summit.