Volcano erupts again with big blast of ash, rocks

Seen from the comfort of my armchair, this is wonderful to behold.

「Officials in the town of Takaharu」I think that's "Takahara."

Moderator: No, Takaharu is correct.

It's definitely an interesting thing to be able to watch on the news from Tokyo. A friend's grandmother lives just 3 km from the volcano though- not a nice time of year to be sleeping in unheated school gymnasiums.

kawachi, that "u" instead of "a" is part of the dialect of that area. Hence the former Miyazaki governor's name (東国原) being pronounced Higashikokubaru, not Higashikokubara.

Thanks, Apsara! I didn't know that and when they said it on the news this morning, they didn't seem to know it either.

Thank you, moderator.

I've seen more smoke in the bars around Shibuya.........

I've seen more smoke in the bars around Shibuya.........

No, you haven't.

erupted again with its biggest explosion yet, shooting out a huge . . .

"The whole earth got down on its knees, looking for a little ease . . ."

Volcanoes are serious business. People think they have time to outrun the lava if it starts flowing and in the cases of some types of lava that may be true, but other types run as fast as a raging river. But even those types are like snails compared to a pyroclastic flow down the side of the volcano. 1,000 degree (celcius) gases and rock traveling downhill at up to 450mph. You're not outrunning that - in fact at those speeds you would get incinerated by the heat before you even knew it was coming.

Good post Fadamor, for we need to know more about volcanoes, not only above the water, but below it.

Fortunately I saw the lastes on the TV at home, but also the rest from TV as well. With so many of us NOT knowing what has beening going on for simply ages.

I hope that Mt.Fuji will never erupt.

By the way, until reading this article, I thought the town's name is Kougen...