Local media reported that the eruption blasted a plume of smoke 2 kilometers into the air, and ash fell as far as four kilometers away.
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NHK reports that around 100 tourists were near Aso when it erupted because the volcano is a popular hiking destination. At the very least 18 home flights have been reportedly cancelled, whereas some flights to the close by metropolis of Kumamoto have been diverted because of the volcanic ash. April marked the latest big eruption, which spewed smoke nearly 5,000 feet up in the air. “The black and gray column at one level seemed to be weakening, however it’s rising greater once more”.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said that although there were a few people at the volcano’s car park, they were evacuated safely and no injuries or damage has been reported. The agency issued a level 3 alert, warning people to stay away from the area.
Mount Aso has one of the world’s largest calderas, a depression – about 12 miles in diameter in Aso’s case – that formed over tens of thousands of years by giant eruptions that forced a former volcano chamber to collapse.
Evacuations afoot… smoke rises from Mount Aso.
Japan is well prepared for such occasions as it is situated on the Ring of Fire, a network of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
An aerial view shows an eruption of Mount Aso in Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, southwestern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 14, 2015.
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The Mount Ontake eruption was the first fatal volcanic eruption since the collapse of a lava dome at Mount Unzen in 1991, and the deadliest since Torishima killed an estimated 150 people in 1902.
