Last Friday, Japan’s Sakurajima erupted with a stunning spectacle, but, fortunately, without hazardous consequences on the population or victims.
- Sakurajima is part of the “Ring of Fire” chain in the Pacific Basin
- The latest eruption is considered “tame”, as it claimed no victims or caused damage
- The volcano was been on level 4 warning since August 2015
According to Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA), the very active Sakurajima volcano erupted on Friday, February 5th, at around 7 P.M. local time. It created a “dirty thunderstorm”, full of glowing orange lava and an impressive display of lightning. Some of its spectacular activity was photographed, and there were luckily no injuries recorded after the natural event.
Sakurajima is situated on the southern island of Kyushu, and is just one of the one hundred volcanoes in the chain known as the “Ring of Fire”. This long string of lava-spewing formations stands within the Pacific Basin, characterizing the Japanese archipelago through their fiery features. Blasting and stunning displays are not uncommon, and this particular one seems to have been relatively innocent.
According to Kazuhiro Ishihara, from the Kyoto University, they have been monitoring Sakurajima’s activity, so there was ample of time offer warnings to the population of its inevitable eruption. In fact, the active volcano has been well under their radar since August 2015. At that point, they had issued a level 4 warning, which means that the surrounding population should’ve been ready to move out at any point, for their own safety.
JMA called last Friday’s event as an “explosive eruption”, though scientists have stated that it was easily one of the tamest in years. In fact, the 1.2-mile-high cloud of grey smoke and dust was barely half of another event recorded just in 2013. And luckily, the victim count was reported null, as opposed to another event back in September 2014, specifically Mount Ontake’s eruption. It claimed the lives of 57 people and injured many more in central Japan, but fortunately, the circumstances were avoided this time for Sakurajima.
There have been no victims reported, no injuries, and no damages or disrupted operations of the nearby power station. Even more, there have luckily been no news of problems at a nuclear plant that resides around 30 miles away. The rate of danger has been qualified as being very low, so Sakurajima merely put on a stunning show of dark clouds of smoke and hot lava.
According to Ishihara, there likely won’t be any serious impact from the explosion. However, they will keep monitoring the volcano’s activity, even after pulling it back to a level 3 warning. The Meteorological Agency has also expanded the no-go zone to a 1.2 mile radius around Sakurajima for the time being.
And yet, researchers, such as Manabu Hashimoto from the university’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute, have stated that the volcano will erupt again.
Image source: fubiz.net
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