Volcanologists said the "high intensity" eruption was the strongest yet from the 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) Mount Merapi, as officials revised the total death toll up to 44 from 36 who were killed on October 26.
"Today's eruption is bigger than yesterday's. Heat clouds and volcanic material were shot 10 kilometres (six miles) into the sky," said Kurniadi Rinekso, a government scientist in Yogyakarta, which lies south of the volcano.
An avalanche of heat clouds that can kill anything in their path streamed nine kilometres down the slopes of the volcano, a sacred landmark in Javanese tradition whose name translates as "Mountain of Fire".
Evacuees staying at an emergency shelter in Wukirsari village in Sleman district, about 20 kilometres from the volcano's peak, said it spat heat clouds and debris for about three hours after dawn.
Scientists however said it had erupted throughout the night but the scale of the blasts -- which reached almost as high as the altitude of cruising jetliners -- had only become visible after sunrise.
Officials said the number of people at safety shelters rose past 100,000 from 75,000 on Wednesday, when the official exclusion zone was widened from 10 to 15 kilometres around the volcano, taking in many more villages.
"The emergency shelters are now overcrowded," emergency response field coordinator Widi Sutikno said.
"We've started to move facilities and equipment from the previous shelters to the new locations," he added.
One mother in a shelter said her six-year-old daughter was traumatised by the eruptions.
"Every time she sees the mountain she cries and freaks out," the woman said.
An official said that including the October 26 eruption, 41 people had been killed "as a direct result of the eruptions" and three in related incidents, including a baby accidentally suffocated by her mother as she tried to flee.
The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines from the Indian to the Pacific oceans.
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