Nearly 75,000 travelers have been stranded on the popular resort island after Mount Agung erupted. Volcanic ash can threaten aircraft by causing their engines to "flame out."
Thousands of travelers are stranded on the Indonesian resort island of Bali after a volcanic eruption forced authorities to shut down its main international airport in the early hours of Friday.
Nearly 450 flights have been canceled, affecting more than 75,000 passengers, and the airport will remain closed until 7 p.m. local time (1100 UTC), a spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency said. Airlines that have canceled flights include Air Asia, Jet Star, Qantas and Virgin.
Fire and ashes: Most troublesome volcanos of our time
In recent years, volcanic eruptions have claimed lives, destroyed homes, and left people stranded accross the world. DW looks at the top five troublemakers among volcanos today.
Image: Reuters/T. Sylvester
Remember Eyjafjallajökull?
The Icelandic volcano with a famously unpronounceable name erupted in 2010, throwing up a massive cloud of ash into the air and disrupting air traffic all across Europe and North Atlantic. A total of 100,000 flights were canceled within one week.
Image: AP
Mount Etna: Europe's biggest volcano
The snow-covered volcano in Sicily, Mount Etna, is both Europe's largest and its most active volcano. It has been continuously erupting for centuries with more or less intensity. At least 10 people were injured when Etna suddenly launched volcanic rocks and steam in 2017.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/S. Allegra
Trouble in Bali paradise
Indonesia's Mount Agung erupted in November 2017 and again in June 2018. Both eruptions prompted authorities to close down the airport in the tourist resort, effectively stranding thousands of visitors.
Image: Reuters/Antara Foto/N. Budhiana
Panic and death in Guatemala
The sudden eruption of Guatemala's Volcan de Fuego in June 2018 left hundreds dead or missing. The volcano also launched ash nearly six kilometers (four miles) into the sky, blanketing nearby villages.
Image: Reuters/L. Echeverria
Kilauea - the rage of Pele
Hawaii's ancient religion names the goddess Pele as the ruler of volcanoes and fire. One of the volcanoes under her command is Kilauea on Hawaii's Big Island, which has been erupting since 1983. The eruptions escalated in 2018, with walls of moving lava swallowing streets and destroying hundreds of homes.
Image: Reuters/T. Sylvester
5 images1 | 5
Authorities acted after Mount Agung in northeastern Bali erupted on Thursday, spewing a 2,500-meter (8,200-foot) column of ash into the surrounding air. Ash can damage aircraft engines and cooling systems and reduce visibility.
Officials, who have not raised their warning alert to the maximum level, established a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) danger zone around the volcano's crater and helped evacuate some 300 nearby residents.
Natural disasters as seen from outer space
How do satellites see the Earth? And what do they find out about what's happening down here? Check out these impressive photos of natural disasters to discover for yourself.
Image: NASA
Only tears of sand remain
Earth observation satellites such as the European Space Agency's Proba-V collect daily images that allow for the tracking of environmental changes over time. The images above - taken in April 2014, July 2015 and January 2016 (left to right) - offer crystal-clear insight into the gradual evaporation of Lake Poopo, once Bolivia's second largest lake - due at least in part to climate change.
Image: ESA/Belspo
The beast has awoken
No matter how long volcanoes sleep, they're always in a bad mood when they wake up. The International Space Station was passing overhead when the Sarychev volcano, located in the Kuril Islands of Russia, erupted in 2009. Astronauts were able to snap a picture through a hole in the clouds. From dense ash to clouds of condensed water, virtually all natural phenomena can be examined from outer space.
Image: NASA
Don't play with fire
Every year, wildfires devastate the landscape - and ecology - in numerous countries around the world. Too often, these are caused by humans. This was also the case in Indonesia, where farmers burned peat rainforest areas for agriculture. On the island of Borneo and Sumatra, satellites detected fire hot spots in September 2015, and the plume of grey smoke that triggered air quality alerts.
Image: NASA/J. Schmaltz
German kids misbehaved
In Germany, parents warn their children that if they don't finish their meals, it's going to rain. And indeed, in 2013 it rained, so much that some of central Europe's major rivers overflowed their banks. As shown in this image from 2013, the Elbe burst its banks following unprecedented rainfall. In the photo, muddy water covers the area around Wittenberg, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Image: NASA/J. Allen
At the eye of the hurricane
A strong storm can cause irreparable damage through intense winds and storm surges from the sea. Space-based information is crucial in following development of such storms: intensity, the direction it's moving, wind speed … in the eastern Pacific Ocean near Mexico, this satellite image helped determine how tropical storm Sandra reached winds of 160 kilometers per hour by November 25, 2015.
Image: NASA/J. Schmaltz
Melting away from under us
Satellites also play a key role in monitoring climate change and, inevitably, the process of melting ice. From space, scientists were able to document how several glaciers around the globe have receded - as well as the subsequent rise in sea level. This photograph, taken from the International Space Station, shows the retreat of the Upsala glacier in Argentine Patagonia from 2002 to 2013.
Image: NASA
Hold your breath!
Dust often covers remote deserts - however, in September 2015, satellites offered this impressive view of Middle East areas enveloped by a dust storm, or haboob, affecting large populated regions. What satellites can observe from space supports air quality sensors on the ground to understand patterns on how the storms start and develop. These findings can improve forecasting methods.
Image: NASA/J. Schmaltz
'Naked mountain'
These are the words NASA used to describe the lack of snow on California's Mount Shasta, a crucial source of water for the region. Images documenting drought over the past years have consistently been showing brown mountains that should be white, and bare earth where people seek water. As ice melts, drought grows.
Indonesia is a hot spot for volcanic activity as it sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Some 1,200 people were killed during Mount Agung's last deadly eruption in 1963.
