Hundreds evacuated as Indonesia’s most active volcano spews hot cloud

The world is on fire, literally.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated as Indonesia's most active volcano started to spew hot cloud. The country's Mount Merapi volcano began shooting hot clouds again, causing over 500 people to be evacuated from their homes in the Magelang district on Java Island. According to Bloomberg, even more residents were told to leave the area surrounding the volcano this morning as hot ash and cloud were shot 200 metres into the air. The Geological Disaster Technology Research and Development Center has since estimated the hot clouds spread less than 1km from the volcano's crater. “Until now, the potential danger is not more than 5 kilometres (3 miles),” they said. A state of emergency had already been implemented in the region last year and is expected to last one more month. Officials have warned residents that they will need to be patient as it may be some time before they are permitted to return to their homes. According to Volcano Discovery, Indonesia's volcanologists recently recorded a record number of volcanic earthquakes underneath Mount Merapi. "720 quakes yesterday and 680 the day before, both of which represented new records in recent months," they said. The average for the month of November had been around 30 before these record figures. "It is particularly worrying that many of the newly detected tremors may be caused by rock-breaking magma which has the power to create new magma conduits or widen existing ones inside the volcano itself. These tremors are known as volcano-tectonic quakes and can be quite dangerous." Mount Merapi is Indonesia's most active volcano and one of the most active volcano's in the world. Its most recent eruption before this week happened in 2010 when the volcano spewed lava from its southern and southeastern slopes. Before that the volcano erupted in May 2006 leading the evacuation of thousands. One month later an earthquake triggered clouds of gas to pour repeatedly down the volcano's upper slopes. Two people were killed following the eruption.