Smoldering Indonesian volcanoes seen from space

JAKARTA, July 16 (UPI) -- Several airports in Indonesia remain closed Thursday, as volcanoes around the Southeast Asian islands continue to erupt, spewing gas and smoke.

One of those volcanoes is Mount Gamalama in Ternate, North Maluku. On Thursday, it spewed more volcanic ash into the skies over Indonesia.

"Officials from the Mount Gamalama observation post have continued to monitor the volcanic activity to determine whether they need to increase the volcano's alert status," said Darno Lamane, a scientist stationed at the observation post.

Lamane says tremors caused by the active volcano have become increasingly common of the last two days, with 90 recorded on Wednesday.

While the small airport near Guamalama is operating as normal, others are home to only grounded planes.

Mount Raung volcano in East Java continues to release a thick plume of dark gray smoke. A recent series of satellite imagery -- captured early this week -- shows the smoke as drifted south just past the underside of the island Bali.

Raung reportedly erupted once again on Thursday, and a newly invigorated plume of ash and smoke is now streaming west to northwest across Java.

Raung is one of the most active volcanoes on Java, its magmatic activity seen in the gray zone around Ruang's caldera where vegetation is unable to establish itself. Elsewhere on Java, as can be seen from the vantage of near-Earth orbit, is incredibly lush.