Mount Aso On Kyushu Erupts

Mount Aso on Kyushu, Japan should be a familiar place to fans of Godzilla and related kaiju movies.

Above, inside Aso Volcano Museum in 2007. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It was where the Rodans met their demise in Rodan (1956). I paid a visit to Mount Aso National Park in 2007. I couldn't see much as a snowstorm blew into the area at the same time I was there. However, I was able to see inside of the crater through television monitors set up in the visitor center.

Well, the old mountain has decided to erupt again.

Reuters reported:

TOKYO, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A volcano erupted in Japan on Wednesday, blasting ash several miles into the sky and prompting officials to warn against the threat of lava flows and falling rocks, but there were no reports of injuries or casualties.

Mount Aso, a tourist destination on the main southern island of Kyushu, sent plumes of ash 3.5 km (2.2 miles) high when it erupted at about 11:43 a.m. (0243 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

It raised the alert level for the volcano to 3 on a scale of 5, telling people not to approach, and warned of a risk of large falling rocks and pyroclastic flows within a radius of about 1 km (0.6 mile) around the mountain's Nakadake crater.

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