The tourist hotspot Bali, located in Indonesia, has been in a state of emergency since Sept. 29 due to the threat of Mount Agung erupting. It last erupted in 1963, killing around 1,700 people.

The first signs of activity from Agung consisted of a series of earthquakes and tremors which shook Bali in August. These tremors increased in intensity over time, resulting in approximately 122,550 people being evacuated from the surrounding area in early September. Due to the lack of an explosive eruption, many returned to their homes only to have Agung continue its dangerous activity.

Mount Agung’s activity could cause severe consequences for the island of Bali.

“The big issue is going to be the ash,” environmental science and anatomy teacher Robert Zynda said. “You also get a lot of sulfur dioxide with water that forms acid precipitation.”

While approximately 90,000 people are in Agung’s danger zone, 40,000 people remain in it due to either not fearing the volcano or not wanting to abandon livestock still there. These effects could impact Indonesia as a whole, as approximately 40 percent of all tourists enter the country through the island.
Due to Agung billowing large amounts of ash into the air, flights have been grounded for the foreseeable future.

“I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport is CLOSED due to the volcanic ashes of Mount Agung,” Disaster Management Specialist Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Twitter.

This eruption shows what may happen if Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano within Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, were to erupt.

“When you look at the Yellowstone supervolcano—and it’s been talked about for years— people have thought we’d have hundreds of years of warning,” Zynda said. “Now we’re finding out that it might be decades, and that might have consequences for all humans.”

If Yellowstone erupts, it could cool global temperatures.

“You will get those particulates in the upper atmosphere that reflect the sun’s energy away from the earth,” Zynda said.

With Agung continuing to spew dangerous ash and destroy the island’s vegetation and various wildlife in the surrounding area, the state of emergency declared by the Indonesian government has been extended until Dec. 10. For now, the people of Bali will have to wait and see whether Mount Agung will erupt and possibly cause mass destruction, or make its return to quiet dormancy.