Scientists and residents on edge waiting for imminent volcanic eruption in Indonesia

The question Indonesian volcanologist Devy Kamil Syahbana gets most is the one he cannot answer – when, or if, rumbling Mount Agung on Bali island will blow up in a major eruption. The 3,000 metre (9,800 ft) Agung – a so-called strato-volcano capable of very violent eruptions – has recorded a sharp rise in activity that has raised worries about a repeat of a 1963 eruption that killed more than 1,000 people.

“There’s no instrument in the world that can estimate precisely when there will be a major eruption,” said Syahbana, who runs an observatory monitoring the towering volcano, just outside a 10-km exclusion zone. Sensors beeped and walkie-talkies crackled he spoke to Reuters at the monitoring station. READ MORE