A new lava dome which began forming last week at Indonesia's Mount Merapi may signal that heightened activity is ending at the volcano, a scientist said Tuesday. Merapi has been on highest alert for most of the past five weeks, as clouds of hot gas and ash have erupted intermittently from its peak along with burning lava flows.
Two people were killed last week when they were trapped in an emergency bunker under volcanic debris carried by the searing clouds.
"The red alert status remains but we are closely observing the development of the new lava dome to see whether this current cycle of activities is about to end," said Triyani from the vulcanology office in Yogyakarta, the main city south of Merapi.
The fresh dome was forming at a depression at the peak caused by collapsing parts of another dome last Friday, she told AFP.
She said the development was typical for Merapi, Indonesia's second most active volcano, with an eruption cycle usually comprising the formation of a new dome, its collapse, and then the creation of a new and more stable one.
"The forming of a more stable lava dome, God willing, indicates that the cycle is starting to end," Triyani said.
Unstable sections at the rim of the dome are prone to falling down the slope in the form of lava flows or cascades of clouds.
During the first six hours of Tuesday, Merapi spewed five lava flows that reached southwards for up to one kilometer (one half-mile), as well as four torrents of clouds that stretched 3.5 kilometers.
The furthest the clouds have reached is just over seven kilometres.
Meanwhile more than 6,300 residents from around Merapi's slopes were still sheltering at safe locations, district disaster management center officials said.
Merapi's deadliest eruption was in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed.
