Apparently the recent Indonesian tsunami and near-simultaneous eruption of Mount Merapi may be the, er, tip of the iceberg, if this Yahoo News article is to be believed:
The other volcanoes were not named, but an earlier version of the story mentioned that one of them is Anak Krakatau, the remnant of the island that was famously destroyed in the 1880s blast that was one of largest explosions in recent times.
In the meantime, on the other side of the world, the glacier on Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano is apparently releasing “torrents of water”, a likely precursor to a significant eruption.
This on top of a couple of eruptions on Kamchatka last week.
What’s going on? Well, while I have some knowledge of geology, I’m no expert on volcanism, so it may be a roughly coincidental cycle of simultaneous activity. Or the Apocalypse is upon us, whatever. I’m pretty sure, however, that ten or fifteen Indonesian volcanoes erupting in unison would be…undesirable.
Yahoo reporting that another large eruption has occurred at Mt. Merapi, and that the evacuation zone has been expanded from six to nine miles from the volcano.
I’ve been planning a return trip since my return in September 2008. I bought my ticket in August, and I leave tonight.
I had originally planned on driving from Jakarta to Bandung, Yogyakarta and Solo, stopping at Borobudur and Prambanan along the way. The 2 temples would take me very close to Merapi, just outside the evacuation zone.
I’ll probably visit Yogya and Solo, but I may give Borobudur and Prambanan a skip and head to Bali a couple days earlier than I’d originally planned.
Then again, It’s not very often that I get the opportunity to see an erupting volcano.
[Warcraft Reference] Deathwing! Deathwing is coming! [/Warcraft Reference]
No, seriously - the Pacific Ring of Fire, with Indonesia is part of, bubbles and seethes and shakes and erupts all the time. It’s largely par for the course, as far as I can see.
