After decades of calmness and stillness, we might see the Sakurajima Volcano erupt again. The composite volcano recorded the most powerful eruption in twentieth-century Japan. It was in 1914 when the stratovolcano erupted and wreak havoc on thousands of people.
Days before the eruption, almost all of the residents evacuated the area due to huge earthquakes that signals a red alert that the volcano is about to erupt. The eruption was considered fiery, generating pyroclastic flows, and large lava flow.
Lava flows are not common in Japan but Sakurajima eruption is an exemption. Due to its high silica content, lava flows continued for months. The 1914 eruption measured about 1.5km cubed in volume," said the study's lead author Dr James Hickey, who has now joined the University of Exeter's Camborne School of Mines.
Japan has more than 100 volcanoes on its belt and Aira Caldera is one of them. The said archipelago is located on the Pacific ring of fire. Sakurajima is based on the edge of Kyushu, Japan. Its volcanic activity is more active now than ever. A series of small eruptions and ash discharge has transpired these past few weeks.
Japanese authorities are closely monitoring the said volcano. One of the two volcanoes are already at level 3. Which means that people are not allowed to go near the volcano or surrounding areas.
A report was made by Bristol University and the Sakurajima Volcano Research Centre which showed that magma increase is rampant and this prompted them to believe that Sakurajima might erupt in the next 30 years.
Evacuation plan is already being discussed as they don't want any casualties once the volcano erupts. "It has already passed by 100 years since the 1914 eruption, less than 30 years is left until a next expected big eruption," said Dr Haruhisa Nakamichi, Associate Professor at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University.
