News of Mount Shinmoe in Kyushu has produced striking images of children cleaning dust at their school, people with high-caliber masks and footage of massive, expanding billows of volcanic ash from a crater — as well as volcanic lightning and lava. The volcanic eruption is another reminder, if any was needed, that nature's tremendous forces are always at work.
Destruction from the latest eruption in the Kirishima group of volcanoes north of Kagoshima Bay has so far been minimal. But that could change unpredictably. In late January, ash plumes rose more than 2 kilometers into the air. Fragments of volcanic rock and lava have been found as far as 8 km away, and an explosion causing pulses of air in early February broke glass in buildings and cars for kilometers around.
Volcanic ash advisories are in effect. The Japanese Meteorological Agency set its alert warning to level 3, one away from preparing to evacuate. A danger zone with a 4-km radius has been established. Volcanic ash remains a danger to the health of people living nearby and to airplane engines.