[metmom]

"I am unafraid. I believe the hot cloud will not attack us," said Suno Sudaraso, who refused to evacuate during last week's eruption. "My four cows will die if I don't feed them. They are my life."

Did it ever occur to these people to move their livestock? I keep hearing this type of report.

On another note, how does this volcano compare to Mt. Pinatubo (sp?)?

[NormsRevenge]

Merapi is a very active volcano, Pinatubo much less so..

but when they go, lives have been lost in the past and may be again sometime in the future,

When?
No one knows for sure.

--

Over the last 10,000 years or so.


Eruptive History Pinatubo
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0703-083&volpage=erupt&VErupt=Y&VSources=Y&VRep=Y&VWeekly=Y

Eruptive History Merapi
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0603-25=&volpage=erupt&VErupt=Y&VSources=Y&VRep=Y&VWeekly=Y

[Strategerist]

On another note, how does this volcano compare to Mt. Pinatubo (sp?)?

They're completely different, really.

Merapi erupts very often in small eruptions. It's never had an eruption that affected much beyond a few miles of itself or that has affected world climate or anything.

Pinatubo completely blows up every 500-1000 years or so.

The largest known eruption of Merapi in the last 10,000 years was only about 1/1000th the size of the Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

The danger of Merapi is the incredibly dense population on and around it; Java is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Thus you have thousands of people exposed to small pyroclastic flows and such that on most volcanoes wouldn't even get mentioned in the news.