Updated 6 PM : Indonesian airport to remain shut till Wednesday morning
Approximately 43 flights, both domestic and international, have been affected by the closure of the airport. The airport will be closed at least till Wednesday morning (local time). The spark from a ring of luminous red lava in the crater of Bali’s Mount Agung is evidently visible indicating the likelihood of a large eruption.
There are thousands of people stranded at the airport due to flight cancellations.Tourists as well as locals have been waiting for updates on the volcano to see if they can travel or return to their homes.
Bali volcano shuts airport for second day, raised to highest level
Bali, the Indonesian Island, famed for its beaches, green landscape and Hindu culture attracts million visitors every year. To add up to its fury is the fact that Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has more than 120 active volcanoes.
Nonetheless, tourism has been drooped in parts of Bali since September when Mount Agung's volcanic shocks started to escalate. With this the alert level was raised to highest before being lowered in October when seismic activity calmed.
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The volcano’s last eruption took place in 1963 that killed more than 1,000 people and wrecked several villages by throwing out hot ash, lava and lahar.
As of now, the recordings demonstrate that the northeast chunk of Agung's peak has swollen in the recent weeks. This indicates that there could be a possible larger eruption but that is likely to take some more days or weeks to unfold.
Thus, if a similar eruption occurred, it could send rocks bigger than fist size up to 8 km the summit and volcanic gas to a distance of 10 km within three minutes.
Due to the explosions, Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport was forced to close that stranded tens of thousands of travelers. The eruption of Mount Agung could be heard as far as 12 km away.
The agency raised the volcano's alert to the highest level early Monday and extended the danger zone to 9.6 km in places from the previous 7.5 km.
Around 445 flights were canceled, stranding about 59,000 travelers. The closure is in effect till Tuesday morning though the officials said the situation will be revised every six hours.
At present, the ash is observed to a height of 30,000 feet and a small amount of ash has fallen at Denpasar Airport and across Bali’s southeast. Eruptions and ash falls are expected to continue for at least the next 24 hours.
IMAGE CREDIT: The New York Times
