Mount Aso, one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, erupted on Wednesday. Its ashes, projected at an altitude of 3,500 meters, made hikers flee at full speed from this tourist site in the southwest of the Japanese archipelago.
No injuries were immediately reported after the eruption, at the end of the morning, of this volcano culminating at 1,592 m, which blew up rocks following a spectacular explosion filmed by CCTV cameras.
Authorities have warned locals and tourists not to approach the volcano, as hot gases and ashes rise and stones roll down its green slopes.
Local officials told Japanese media that authorities were checking, among other things, whether hikers might have been trapped, while footage showed dozens of vehicles and tourist coaches parked in the parking lot of a nearby museum, offering a view cleared on the volcano.
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Although they did not reach the museum site, torrents of ash of a pale gray color flowed from Mount Aso in its direction.
“You have to watch out for big rocks”
Tomoaki Ozaki, an official with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), told a televised press conference that those in the vicinity should “be careful of large boulders and flows of pyroclastic material.” “Caution is called for, even in remote areas, because the wind can carry not only ashes but also stones,” added Mr. Ozaki, also warning of possible toxic gases.
The last time the JMA set the same alert level as Wednesday’s for Mount Aso – 3 on a scale of 5 – was in 2016.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency had warned of the danger
The Japanese archipelago is located on the Pacific “ring of fire”, which records a large number of earthquakes on the planet.
Located on the island of Kyushu, Mount Aso is one of the hundreds of volcanoes under close surveillance that are active in Japan, including Mount Fuji, about a hundred kilometers from Tokyo. The Japanese Meteorological Agency had warned in recent days against an increase in volcanic activity in the region of Mount Aso.
In September 2014, Japan suffered its deadliest eruption in nearly 90 years when Mount Ontake (Central) abruptly came into operation, surprising hundreds of hikers and killing 63 people.