While checking Tokyo VAAC for updates on Sakurajima, I noticed multiple reports that this Japanese volcano was going off a lot, with plumes many tens of thousands of feet high.
I looked it up at the GVP website and realized we should be aware of this, too:
The 8-km-long island of Suwanosejima in the northern Ryukyu Islands consists of an andesitic stratovolcano with two historically active summit craters. The summit is truncated by a large breached crater extending to the sea on the east flank that was formed by edifice collapse. One of Japan’s most frequently active volcanoes, it was in a state of intermittent Strombolian activity from Otake, the NE summit crater, between 1949 and 1996, after which periods of inactivity lengthened. The largest recorded eruption took place in 1813-14, when thick scoria deposits blanketed residential areas, and the SW crater produced two lava flows that reached the western coast. At the end of the eruption the summit of Otake collapsed, forming a large debris avalanche and creating the open Sakuchi caldera, which extends to the eastern coast. The island remained uninhabited for about 70 years after the 1813-1814 eruption. Lava flows reached the eastern coast of the island in 1884. Only about 50 people live on the island.
Let’s simulate a flight out to the island volcano and check it out!
Seriously, Suwanose Island is a nice place. (Image: Nagoya Taro via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)
After we vow to return to the mainland on the next ferry to Kagoshima and to never ever get into a small plane again — okay, I am a weenie, but also there are a lot of Suwanosejima simulations online under the heading “landing challenge” —
— the volcano laughs at us as we sail away.
Inside the pretty hill behind that horse. (Image: tsuda, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Probably because of its remoteness and scant human presence, not to mention the landing difficulties, there are few videos taken on real-world Suwanosejima.
Here is one of them from eleven years ago (also demonstrating how challenging those flight conditions really are):
That seems to be it for live videos. Fortunately, Volcano Hotspot has done an in-depth post on Suwanosejima, and here is a link to images and text on the Photovolcanica page about that 2009 visit.
This autotranslated Japanese Wikipedia page is interesting, too.
Some lagniappe:
Cussing and F-bombs alert, but also incredibly fun.
Featured image: Nagoya Taro via Wikimedia (autotranslated), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Flight To Wonder 