Volcano Eruption Launches 11-Mile-High Ash Cloud

Indonesia's rumbling Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted Monday, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 11 miles into the sky and depositing ash on villages. The country's Geology Agency said in a statement that it recorded the volcano unleashing an avalanche of searing gas clouds down its slopes during the eruption, the AP reports. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The volcano monitoring agency had increased the volcano's alert status to the highest level after an eruption on June 18, and more than doubled an exclusion zone to a 4.3-mile radius since then as eruptions became more frequent.

An eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki in November killed nine people and injured dozens. It also erupted in March. The 5,197-foot mountain is a twin volcano with Mount Lewotobi Perempuan in the district of Flores Timur. Indonesia is an archipelago of 270 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanoes and sits along the "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.