A scientist warned on Wednesday that all indications pointed to the imminent eruption of a volcano on the Indonesian island of Java, despite few obvious signs of activity.
Mount Kelut, a 1,731-metre (5,712-foot) volcano with a history of deadly eruptions, was put on high alert on October 16, triggering efforts to evacuate about 130,000 people living within 10 kilometres (six miles) of its crater.
But the mountain and its fertile farmed slopes have been quiet for the past few days, with no drastic changes in the frequency and magnitude of volcanic and tectonic quakes affecting the area.
Most residents are spending the nights at temporary shelters further down the slopes but they are returning to work the fields during the day.
"The trend is that the centres of the shallow volcanic quakes are moving closer and closer to the surface, and this is the normal pattern prior to an eruption," said Kristianto, a geologist monitoring Kelut.
"They (the quake centres) are now less than one kilometre beneath the crater's floor but the mountain will only erupt when these are accompanied by shallow quakes of large amplitude and long, continuous tremors," he told AFP.
Although he said that an eruption was impossible to predict accurately, the signs leading to an eruption usually followed the same pattern.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono toured the area Wednesday afternoon and met with thousands of residents in the village of Segaren, Kediri district.
Yudhoyono met with the Mbah Ronggo, warden of the volcano, and thanked him for evacuating. Some villagers said they would not evacuate until told to do so by the 64-year-old spiritual leader.
Ronggo evacuated after being persuaded to do so by officials last week but he returned during daylight hours to tend his plants, defying orders to stay away from the danger zone.
President Yudhoyono is to spend the night in Kediri.
Geologists have said they expect an eruption of Kelut would lead to "heat clouds," searing gasses and volcanic debris rushing down the slopes, similar to the most recent eruption in 1990, which left 34 dead.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The archipelago nation is home to 129 active volcanoes, including 21 on Java.
