On Friday evening, a volcano erupted in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan sending lava oozing down and lightning piercing through the sky. To date, there were no reported human injuries according to the Meteorological Service of Japan, as the agency restricted locals and visitors from the area within a two kilometer radius, making it a no entry zone.
The Sakurajima volcano eruption was raised to alert level 3 from level 2 as it is also located nearby the island of Kyushu, which is currently off limits. This banned entry is also due to the fact that Sakurajima is only 30 miles from the Sendai nuclear power station that is under Kyushu Electric Power. The company announced that this eruption did not affect the plant and its operations so far.
The eruption led to ash and smoke covering the region, where pillars of thick smoke towered over three miles high. Fresh, hot lava was glowing where ribbons flowed for half a mile as they ooze out of a volcanic fissure. The initial eruption last Friday released smoke and ash rising for two kilometers up into the atmosphere.
The last powerful eruption occurred back in 2013, where locals had to sport masks and raincoats including umbrellas to protect them from the incessant falling ash. During daytime, drivers even had to switch on their headlights on the road as the roads appear to be snowing at night. Train systems were halted for ash deposits to be removed from the tracks.
Videos of the eruption show smoke swelling and escaping out of the crater as rocks and lava were streaming in veins down Sakurajima's slopes. Flying rocks exploded from the crater, traveling a mile from the mountain top, which is a relatively safe distance says volcanologist Kazuhiro Ishihara of Kyoto University.
Japan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire where active volcanoes pockmark the region. Sakurajima is also considered an active volcano where it displayed seismic activity recently along with Japan's more than 100 active volcanoes. In 2014, Mount Ontake erupted where 57 individuals perished.
Ishihara also says that there won't be any serious impact from the explosion but scientists will continue monitoring this volcanic activity, as told to local media outlets. Sakurajima is also considered as one of Japan's most active volcanoes, sending out 700 eruptions last year where most of them occurred in September 2015.