As the nation of Japan struggles with recovering from a massive magnitude 8.9 earthquake, a troublesome volcano on the island of Kyushu erupted. Shinmoedake most recently erupted less than two months ago and today it saw renewed activity sending ash and smoke billowing into the atmosphere.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued a new warning for the mountain which had recently seemed to settle down. Ash and rocks were sent two and a half miles into the air with the latest eruption and it is likely air travel in the area around southwestern Japan will be impacted.
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The eruption of the volcano in January was the largest in more than 50 years for the mountain. The volcano may be best known to James Bond fans. In the movie "You Only Live Twice” Mount Kirishima was the secret lair of the film’s villain, Ernst Blofeld.
It is unknown if the latest eruption is related to the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of northeastern Japan on Friday. The temblor and resultant tsunami have created a major disaster for the nation with as many as 10,000 people killed. Prime Minister Naoto Kan called it the nation's "most severe crisis in the past 65 years since World War II."
According to the Global Volcanism Program, Shinmoe is part of a group of 20 volcanoes north of Kagoshima Bay. Eruptions in the area have occurred four times in the past 40 years however this recent is the largest in more than 50 years. The most recent significant even occurred on February 13, 1959 with others since 1900 occurring in 1946, 1923, 1913 and 1903.
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