The Mount Agung volcano on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali was observed ejecting plumes of ash on Friday morning, as a weeks-long period of activity continues.
A timelapse video shows how grey and white smoke billows from the top of the mountain, a stark reminder that the volcano is not ready to rest just yet.
Ash spewed as high as 1.3 miles above the crater and spread within a radius of about 3 miles around the mountain, the Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
Not done: The Mount Agung volcano on Bali, Indonesia was observed ejecting plumes of ash on Friday morning
Anger: The volcano has been active for weeks but does not seem to be stopping anytime soon
‘Sometimes it is hard for the lava and magma to come out, and when there is pressure, it will spew ash,’ agency head Gede Suantika told Reuters.
Until the volcano started to enter the ash emission stage on Friday, its emissions since November 25 had been mostly composed of steam, he said.
While hot magma has produced an eerie orange glow just above the crater, Agung’s ejections of material have been small this time.
The 9,800-foot Mount Agung volcano, which is capable of very violent eruptions, has shown a marked increase in activity in the last few weeks, stoking fears of a repeat of an eruption in 1963 that killed more than 1,000 people.
Powerful: The 9,800-foot Mount Agung volcano is capable of very violent eruptions and some 1,000 people died in one eruption in the 1960s
Escape: The volcano has forced more than 40,000 local residents to be evacuated from what the government deem to be the ‘red zone’
Authorities raised the alert status to the maximum after it started erupting last month.
The volcano has forced more than 40,000 local residents from the ‘red zone’ at highest risk, and the streets normally bustling with tourists and locals are quiet.
Thousands of tourists ended up either stranded in the island or unable to fly to the island when ash spewing from the volcano caused the the island’s international airport to close for three days last week.
Operations were normal on Friday at the international airports in Bali and on nearby Lombok island.