The signs were all there that Merapi was headed towards a new eruptive phase and today at ~6 PM (local time in Indonesia), Merapi erupted. This is a double (possibly triple) whammy for Indonesia that is suffering after a M7.7 earthquake off Sumatra that generated a tsunami as well. The Indonesia government has their work cut out for them as they try to evacuate over 50,000 people from the slopes and nearby region around Merapi.
The eruption of Merapi today produced three large explosions and an eruption column that has reached at like 1,500 meters / 5,000 feet. Volcanologists in the area seem to think this means that juvenile material (new magma) has made it to the surface and the eruption has begun. Suruno from the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency has already called the explosions that have occurred as bigger than anything that happened during the 2006 eruption ...
