BALI holiday plans have already been thrown into turmoil but Indonesia has warned that the first major eruption of Mount Agung on the tourist island hasn’t happened yet and is imminent as a muddy lava spews from the volcano.

“What we are seeing at the moment are small explosions, throwing out hot gases and fragments of molten rock, or ash,” said David Pyle, a volcano expert at Oxford University told AFP.

“The probability of a large eruption is high, but this may take some days or weeks to unfold.”

Denpasar International Airport was closed on Monday morning, and remains closed on Tuesday after Mount Agung sent volcanic ash high into the sky. That’s what volcanologists call a phreatic eruption, caused by the heating and expansion of groundwater.

Officials now say cancellations could be extended as a sludge-like cold lava, known as lahar, has appeared — often a prelude to the blazing orange lava seen in many volcanic eruptions.

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