Volcano Discovery Sunday Sep 29, 2013 14:41 PM | BY: T
Powerful strombolian explosion from Sakurajima at 13:48 UTC on 27 Sep (22:48 local time)
Activity fluctuates on a scale of few days, but remains at relatively high levels overall. Explosions from the Showa crater often follow each other at intervals of few hours, and ash plumes regularly surpass 10,000 ft altitude (something that had been more rare during the past years).
Most explosions are of vulcanian type (strong fragmentation of solid material blocking the vent, generation of tall ash plumes, often with shock waves and explosion sounds) and more rarely strombolian, with mainly incandescent lava ejected in fountains of several hundred meters and only little ash.
Following most explosions, the volcano usually continues to near-constantly emit ash plumes of various size for several hours. These plumes, when observed during the past days, were up to about 500 m tall, with sometimes weak strombolian activity visible reaching above the crater rim.
