Bali volcano: Airport shut for third successive day leaving tourists stranded as Mount Agung spews more ash

Mount Agung volcano spewing hot volcanic ash during the night in Bali
EPA
Tom Powell29 November 2017

Bali’s airport will remain closed for the third day in row as a volcano continues to spew ash more than four miles high, leaving tens of thousands of tourists stranded.

Lava is welling in the crater of Mount Agung amid fears a major explosion could be on the horizon.

Authorities have raised the alert to the highest level and told 100,000 people to leave an area extending six miles from the crater as it belches grey and white plumes into the sky.

Officials extended the closure of Bali's international airport, the second biggest in Indonesia, for another 24 hours due to concerns the thick volcanic ash could harm aircraft.

Bali Volcano: Mount Agung erupts - In pictures

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Airport spokesman Ari Ahsanurrohim said more than 440 flights were cancelled on Tuesday, affecting nearly 60,000 passengers, about the same as Monday.

The closure is now in effect until Thursday morning. Without aircraft, getting in or out of Bali requires travelling hours by land and taking a boat to another island, enduring choppy seas in the rainy season.

Mr Ahsanurrohim said observations from the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre show the ash has reached an altitude of 25,000 feet and was being blown toward the airport.

Experts said a larger, explosive eruption is possible or Agung could stay at its current level of activity for weeks.

"If it got much worse, it would be really hard to think of. You've got a huge population centre, nearly a million people in Denpasar and surroundings, and it's very difficult to envision moving those people further away," said Richard Arculus, a volcano expert at Australian National University, adding that an eruption in 1843 was even more explosive than the one in 1963.

"There are many examples in history where you have this kind of seismic buildup - steam ejections of a little bit of ash, growing eruptions of ash to a full-scale stratosphere-reaching column of ash, which can presage a major volcanic event," he said.

A NASA satellite detected a thermal anomaly at the crater, said senior Indonesian volcanologist Gede Swantika. That means a pathway from the storage chamber in the volcano's crust has opened, giving magma easier access to the surface.

Indonesian officials first raised the highest alert two months ago when a rash of seismic activity was detected at the mountain. More than 100,000 people living near the volcano fled their homes, many abandoning their livestock or selling them for a fraction of the normal price. The seismic activity decreased by the end of October, causing authorities to lower the alert level.

Tremors increased again last week and officials upped the alert and ordered another large-scale evacuation, with nearly 40,000 people now staying in 225 shelters, according to the Disaster Mitigation Agency in Karangasem.

But tens of thousands of villagers have remained in their homes because they feel safe or do not want to abandon their farms and livestock.

"Ash has covered my house on the floor, walls, banana trees outside, everywhere" said Wayan Lanus, who fled his village in Buana Giri with his wife and daughter.

Flows of volcanic mud have been spotted on Agung's slopes, and Arculus warned more are possible since it's the rainy season.

"They're not making a lot of noise. It's just suddenly coming like a flash flood out of nowhere," he said. "You do not want to be near them. Stay out of the valleys."

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has more than 120 active volcanoes.

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