[gatagato]

Indonesia's erupting volcano has turned deadly. At least 16 people were killed when Mount Sinabung, on the island of Sumatra, erupted again on Saturday.

Mount Sinabung has been erupting on and off since September, when it burst back into life after three years of dormancy. But this is the first time that the current spate of activity has killed anyone.

Despite their fearsome reputation, volcanic eruptions are rarely lethal these days because there is usually enough warning to evacuate the area. In this case, local people had been allowed back into the 5-kilometre exclusion zone around the volcano because volcanologists believed Sinabung was settling down.

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo was one of the three biggest eruptions of the 20th century and hundreds of thousands of people lived nearby, but the final death toll was fewer than 900. The last eruption to cause confirmed deaths was Nabro in Eritrea in 2011, which killed at least seven people.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24986

[Brometheus]

call me stupid but how'd those people die exactly?

[Kelseecat65]

My guess would be volcanic ash

[Brometheus]

Originally Posted by Kelseecat65 ↗

My guess would be volcanic ash

that was my main guess.. but EXACTLY how? be my google. don't pass up the chance to educate a layman and look cool. you are smart!

[Kelseecat65]

Originally Posted by Brometheus ↗

that was my main guess.. but EXACTLY how? be my google. don't pass up the chance to educate a layman and look cool. you are smart!

LOL...my son recently did a report on Pompeii...so volcanic ash is on my brain! Actually, perhaps inhailing it or it's so hot it burns the lungs??
Must research this further!!

[Kelseecat65]

Originally Posted by Brometheus ↗

that was my main guess.. but EXACTLY how? be my google. don't pass up the chance to educate a layman and look cool. you are smart!

If you inhale the ash, you can also inhale volcanic gases (mainly steam, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide) which can harm and kill you.

It is can also be super-heated, and can kill in a matter of seconds.

[invertigo]

Even after the invention of 'the Weather Channel', Nature still kicks our asses.

[Pyramid_Head]

Talk about bad luck.

[Pigeon]

Vulcanologists can't afford to be wrong... :/

Originally Posted by Brometheus ↗

call me stupid but how'd those people die exactly?

Boiling temperatures, toxic gases and the sheer force of a pyroclastic flow, it looks like.

[Faline]

Tragic