Pictures: Volcano's Biggest Blast Yet Scorches Villages

Ash Over Indonesia

Photograph by Trisnadi, AP

Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most volatile volcano, spews clouds of ash over the island of Java on Monday. On Thursday night Merapi exploded again—the peak's largest blast since the 1870s, the Associated Press reported.

The scope of the Thursday night eruption surprised residents and experts alike. For example, the hardest-hit village, Bonggang, some 9 miles (15 kilometers) from Mount Merapi, had been considered outside the danger zone.

"I've never seen it act like this," Surono, head of Indonesia's Volcano Mitigation and Geological Disaster Agency—who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name—told the AP Friday. "We don't know what to expect."

Published November 5, 2010

Suspended in Ash

Photograph by Trisnadi, AP

A pet bird lies dead outside an ash-covered house on Tuesday after ash from Mount Merapi smothered the abandoned village of Kaliadem, Indonesia. As of midday Friday, Merapi's human death toll stands at about 120, the Associated Press reported.

The volcano last erupted in 2006, when showers of hot debris killed two people. A 1994 eruption caused the volcano's dome to collapse, killing 70, and an eruption in 1930 killed more than 1,300. (See more Mount Merapi volcano pictures.)

Published November 5, 2010

Smoldering Ruin

Photograph from ALTAMIRA/AFP/Getty Images

Abandoned to the ashes, a building smolders in the village of Argomulyo, Indonesia. Many of Friday's fatalities were children from Argomulyo, about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from Mount Merapi.

"Argomulyo village has been burned down to the ground by the heat clouds," Yogyakarta police force medic Teguh Dwi Santosa told the Agence France-Presse news service Friday. "Many children have died there. When I was in the village the ground was still hot."

Published November 5, 2010

Ashes to Ashes

Photograph by Trisnadi, AP

Rescuers remove the charred remains of a victim of Thursday night's Mount Merapi eruption in Argomulyo, Indonesia, on Friday.

Gas from the blast reached temperatures of 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit (760 degrees Celsius), according to the Associated Press.

By contrast, a recent study found that Pompeiian victims of the A.D. 79 eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius volcano were instantly seared to death by gases no hotter than about 570 degrees Fahrenheit (300 degrees Celsius).

Published November 5, 2010

Heeding the Call

Photograph from Reuters

Soldiers carry a victim of Mount Merapi through an ash-dusted bamboo grove in the village of Argomulyo, Indonesia, on Friday.

More than a hundred thousand people have been evacuated from Merapi's slopes. To help keep villagers from returning to their homes in the danger zone, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced Friday that the government would compensate farmers for lost livestock "at a proper price," the Jakarta Globe reported.

Published November 5, 2010

Lava Lights the Clouds

Photograph from ADI WEDA/epa/Corbis

Mount Merapi spews lava high above the Indonesian island of Java Tuesday. Magma in the volcano is rising from depths of 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 kilometers), versus 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) during its last eruption, in 2006, officials from Indonesia's Volcano Mitigation and Geological Disaster Agency said Friday—not a good sign.

"This is the scenario I dislike the most, because the deepest magma is pushing up now," Surono, the agency's chief, told the Australian newspaper Friday. "The eruptions haven't stopped, the tremors are getting stronger, and one big explosion could be the result."

Published November 5, 2010