Smoke can often be seen emerging from the mountaintop , and several eruptions have caused fatalities . Pyroclastic flow from a large explosion killed 27 people on 22 November 1994 , mostly in the town of Muntilan , west of the volcano . Another large eruption occurred in 2006 , shortly before the Yogyakarta earthquake . In light of the hazards that Merapi poses to populated areas , it has been designated as one of the Decade Volcanoes
Yogyakarta earthquake
2006 Yogyakarta earthquake
Mount Merapi