Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano has continued to spew towering columns of ash high above Java, killing dozens of additional victims and disrupting air transportation. Nearly 200 people have so far been killed by Merapi’s clouds of super-heated gas and debris that cascaded down its slopes. More than 350,000 people have been forced to evacuate and huddle in cramped emergency shelters. Gunung Merapi means fire mountain in Indonesian. However, in the last few hours, volcanologists have suggested that the volcano is 'easing off. Villages surrounding Mount Merapi on Java island remained on "highest red alert", but the government reduced the danger zone around the volcano. Merapi killed 1,300 people in 1930, but experts suggest (despite the relatively low death toll) that Merapi's latest period of activity is the worst since the 1870's.