Mount Shinmoedake. (Yusaku Kanagawa)
MIYAZAKI–Hundreds of residents have fled their homes as fears are growing that volcanic activity on Mount Shinmoedake will culminate in a huge eruption triggering destructive pyroclastic flows of searing gases and rocks.
The town of Takaharu in Miyazaki Prefecture advised 513 households of 1,158 residents to evacuate from late Sunday night. About 600 braved the frigid temperatures and arrived by Monday morning to take shelter at public facilities in the town. The 1,421-meter volcano, part of the Kirishima mountain range straddling Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, began erupting last week for the first time in 52 years, spewing rocks and ash that blanketed nearby areas.
The Fukuoka District Meteorological Observatory said the diameter of the lava dome, which was found within the crater last Friday, had grown from dozens of meters to 500 meters. The crater is 700 meters in diameter.
Motoo Ukawa, director of the Volcano Research Department at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, said the lava dome may be preventing the magma from escaping, causing the pressure of the volcanic gas to build.
Such a situation could lead to an explosive eruption that destroys the dome and sends large-scale pyroclastic flows down the mountain slopes, Ukawa and officials warn. The eruptions at Shinmoedake are the first large-scale ones since 1716, when major eruptions continued for a year and a half.
Tags: Kirishima, lava dome, Miyazaki Prefecture, Mount Shinmoedake, Takaharu Miyazaki, Volcano
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