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Indonesia's Mount Merapi Volcano Erupts

VOA News

   Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupted Tuesday, sending a massive
   cloud of ash high into the air over Java island and shut down a nearby
   airport.

   The country's volcano agency has issued a warning for residents to stay
   out of a 3.5 kilometer exclusion zone around Mount Merapi. The massive
   cloud caused by the eruption reached as high as 6,000 meters into the
   sky, forcing authorities to temporarily shut down the international
   airport in the city of Solo.

   The volcano is Indonesia's most active. Tuesday's event was Mount
   Merapi's first major eruption since 2010, when more than 350 people
   were killed. The archipelago sits along the so-called "Ring of Fire," a
   series of geological fault lines in the Pacific Ocean that makes it
   prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.