Latest on Mount Merapi (you can search the blog via the search box for previous items on this. Please pay attention to Maridjan's input on all this. I have taken great pains to ensure that whatever he says gets published on line, as the MSM media tries to bury whatever he says.)

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Indonesia: Volcano's eruption 'imminent'

Jakarta, 17 Oct. (AKI) - One of Indonesia's deadliest volcanoes, Mount Kelud could explode at any minute. But not all of the 24,000 people living in its shadow are willing to abandon their homes and properties, local media report.

In statement posted to its website, the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Centre (PVMBG) said the volcano's explosion is "imminent".

The authorities have ordered a compulsory evacuation for the inhabitants of the area, yet reports say that some villagers have decided to defy the wrath of the volcano and stay to feed the livestock, look after the crops and protect their houses.

Tempting fate is not unusual among some Indonesians, who often trust centuries-old mystical traditions more than modern science.

Last year, as Central Java’s Mount Merapi - another active volcano - was believed to be about to erupt - residents stayed put and listened to Maridjan, a seventy-something year old local, who said that nothing would happen.

Maridjan is Mount Merapi's 'gatekeeper' and he is believed to be the medium between the residents and the mountain spirits

Mount Kelud does not seem to have a 'gatekeeper.’ What it has, instead, is a fierce reputation as one of the most dangerous among Indonesia’s 70 active volcanoes.

The 1,731-meter volcano last erupted in 1990, destroying one hundred villages and killing 5,160 people. Experts believe another eruption is already overdue.

Indonesia's 17,000 islands lie on the so-called ‘Pacific Ring of Fire,’ a series of volcanoes and fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

Scientists say sthat 90 percent of all the world's earthquakes and 81 percent of the world's largest earthquakes occur along this line.

Indonesia has had two of the world's biggest volcanic eruptions in the past 200 years: Mount Tambora in 1815 which killed over 71,000 people; and Krakatau in the Sunda Straits in 1883 which killed an estimate of 36,400 people.