Volcano in Japan's Sakurajima erupts, creating 4,400m high plume

A volcano on Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture southwestern Japan erupted early Sunday morning sending a plume of ash and smoke up to 4400 meters into the atmosphere Kyodo News reported the weather agency as sayingThe eruption continued after the initial event prompting the agency to issue an ashfall forecast for parts of Kagoshima Kumamoto and Miyazaki prefectures No injuries or damage to buildings have been reportedAn explosive eruption around 1257 am local time on Sunday at the Minamidake crater sent a plume rising above 4000 meters for the first time since October 18 last year according to the local meteorological observatoryIn the latest series of eruptions large volcanic rocks flew as far as the fifth station but no pyroclastic flows were detected The alert level remains at three on a scale of five which restricts access to the mountainSakurajima one of Japans most active volcanoes is linked to the Osumi Peninsula on Kyushu the countrys southwestern main island It was once an island but a 1914 lava flow created a land bridge to the peninsula as per Kyodo NewsEarlier on August 30 the Japanese government has released simulated video footage of a large Mt Fuji eruption predicting its impact including ashfall in an effort to better prepare people for such a disaster scenarioThe 10minute video uses computer graphics to depict scenes after an eruption on a scale equivalent to the last confirmed blast in 1707 It warns that power supplies sewage systems and roads and railways would be among the infrastructure affectedThe video featuring a potential disaster at the 3776meter peak Japans tallest can be viewed on the Cabinet Office website and comes as the country observes Volcanic Disaster Preparedness Awareness Day on August 26It is a bit unusual that Mt Fuji has not erupted for over 300 years Toshitsugu Fujii professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo said in the footage On average Mt Fuji erupts once every 30 years he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever