Eruption on Japanese volcano engulfs hikers Prior to Saturday, Japan’s Mount Ontake was a dormant volcano, having last produced a large eruption in 1979. The volcano is inhabited, with several hundred people living on it, and it is regularly visited by hikers and pilgrims. On Saturday, the volcano unexpectedly erupted with several hundred hikers on the slopes. Most of them were able to make their way down, but clouds of ash and debris engulfed several groups during the eruption. The press reports are currently a bit unclear but at least about a dozen people were injured and there may have been a fatality. The alert level at this volcano has been raised and most people have been evacuated from nearby. This volcano is a classic stratovolcano, formed on top of the subduction zones that have given rise to Japan. The volcano is made up of a mixture of ash flows and lava flows. Ash flow eruptions like this one are driven by volatiles; when water and carbon dioxide dissolved in magma tries to escape the lava, it shatters it and causes explosive eruptions. One thing I’m wondering is how unexpected this eruption actually was. Typically it is very rare for a volcano to wake up without a signal beforehand: usually a combination of earthquakes, distortion of the volcano’s shape, and gas release. It would be surprising if there were no signals beforehand, but it could be that there was just no active monitoring system in the area to provide such a warning. I’m going to post a few of the videos taken by hikers and overflying aircraft over at our blog, the-earth-story. -JBB Image credits: news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77856000/jpg/_77856935_77856934.jpg wdsu/image/view/-/28280244/medRes/2/-/maxh/460/maxw/620/-/hgxgkf/-/Mount-Ontake-verticle-jpg.jpg Read more: cnn/2014/09/27/world/asia/japan-volcano-erupts/ japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/09/27/national/central-japans-mt-ontake-erupts-hikers-reported-injured/#.VCbHgr7HIok news.yahoo/volcano-erupts-japan-injuries-reported-053344700.html Have you been missing out on our posts lately? If so, it is due to changes in Facebooks filtering system. To find out how you can enjoy reading our posts more often click here: tinyurl/ll9wd7l.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 03:35:01 +0000
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