Blowing its stack

last updated 8 January 2015

Java, Indonesia

Hundreds of Indonesians refused to leave their homes this week, even as the giant volcano looming above them began erupting. Mount Merapi, on the island of Java, spewed gas, ash, and streams of lava, and scientists feared a major collapse of the lava dome. At least 5,000 people did evacuate the area, but many remained, bolstered by the calm of an 80-year-old mystic who tends the volcano’s gods. The mystic, Maridjan, said the spirits had not told him to flee. Merapi’s last eruption, in 1994, killed 70 people. A much bigger eruption, in 1930, killed at least 1,300.