Merapi's Dome Growing Rapidly, Still Has Elbow Room - AFP

[hatrack]

A new dome at the peak of Indonesia's simmering Mount Merapi is growing rapidly but has ample space to develop before it turns unstable, a geologist said Tuesday.

"Because of its position smack in the middle (of the peak), this means that it has the opportunity to expand," geologist Ratdomo Purbo said, referring to the lava dome being formed by magma flowing out of a fissure at Merapi's peak.

The new dome has been forming on Merapi for nearly two weeks, and scientists have said it indicates that an impending eruption would involve an outflow of lava and deadly heat clouds rather than a massive explosion.

Purbo, speaking from the volcanology office in Yogyakarta, 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) south of Merapi, also said small rocks were being hurled out of the top of the crater. The office, he said, still saw no reason to raise the alert level on Merapi, which towers over a fertile Central Java plain and provides livelihoods for thousands of people living around its slopes.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Merapis_New_Dome_Has_Ample_Space_To_Develop.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Sheesh. I thought you were talking about Rove's head...........

[Dead_Parrot]

2. "Deadly heat clouds"!?

Either terradaily has dumbed down to Fox News' level, Or I've slid into an HG Wells book. I assume they're talking about a pyroclastic flow, or does that have too many syllables these days? :shrug: