The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff, Wire Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:24 PM

Volcano Threatens Eruption Near Bali

The glow from a ring of incandescent red lava in the crater of Bali’s Mount Agung is clearly visible, as the likelihood of a large eruption on the popular holiday island continues to grow.

How dangerous is Bali's Mount Agung and what action has been taken?

The burnt orange glow atop Mount Agung could be easily seen at night and in the thick ash column that Indonesia’s disaster agency said was being sent nearly two miles (3km) into the atmosphere.

“We could see the magma tonight,” Nyoman Karyiarsa, a resident of Rendang village, told the Guardian on Monday evening. “From 7pm to 8pm, we could see a bright red colour from the crater, but it hasn’t come out yet.”

The Rendang monitoring post registered powerful and continuous tremors at about 2pm on Tuesday in Bali, with locals and journalists told to evacuate. The last big eruption in 1963 was preceded by continuous tremors.

The Balinese volcano, the highest point on the island, has grown increasingly restless over the past week, with the alert system raised to its highest level early on Monday, as the nature of the eruptions has shifted from phreatic, or steam-based, to magmatic.