Volcanic Eruption In Japan Disrupts Flights

An anonymous reader writes: A volcano in southern Japan erupted today, sending out chunks of magma and a kilometer-high plume of ash. Flights to and from the nearby city of Kumamoto were canceled, and a Japan Airlines spokesman said more could be disrupted if the eruption continues. "Mount Aso, whose huge caldera dominates the southwestern main island of Kyushu, rumbled into life on Tuesday. Meteorologists warned volcanic stones and ash could fall in a one-kilometer radius of the volcano. The eruption is Aso's first in 19 years and comes two months after Mount Ontake in central Nagano killed more than 60 hikers when it erupted without warning."

All the smart herpetologists

[Ukab the Great]

Know a really big lizard is behind all of this.

travel nightmare

[Anonymous Coward]

This is going to make Thanksgiving travel around there even worse than usual!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Good job they don't do Thanksgiving (like most of the rest of the world).

Re: travel nightmare

[Anonymous Coward]

Great! My Japanese Thanksgiving holiday ruined by some aso volcano. Thanks Obama.

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

I really hope you are trying to be funny.

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

I really hope you are trying to be funny.

One can always hope, but it seems we've managed to go from "climate change isn't real" to "it causes everything bad that happens."

Of course, a big enough eruption would actually trigger a global cooling trend for a while. Think Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo.

Vocanic Winter

[retroworks]

There's actually a fairly cool and intelligent discussion that could be had about volcanic activity's role in the history of world climate, and how forecasting of volcanic activity can play a role in climate modelling. Too bad I can't anticipate actually having that discussion without an eruption of troll commentary. Merely discussing it amounts to flamebait due to the polarizing of opinions on the issue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[CaptainLard]

an eruption of troll commentary.

I see what you did there.

Its certainly interesting how historical events can be tied to volcanic eruptions. But most in recent (geological) history seem to have only affected the climate for a few years. It goes back to normal because volcanic activity is part of a balanced system. And given that we're not great (AFAIK) at predicting (and believing predictions of...and arresting Italian scientists if they are wrong) specific eruptions more than a week or so in advance and the effects last only a few years,

Only a kilometer high?

[tompaulco]

The ash cloud is only a kilometer high? Why don't they just fly over it?

Re:

[Zebai]

It's not the cloud that's a danger, as that's easily seen and avoided but what the cloud represents.. Tons of earth thrown into the air at high speed in random directions. The cloud is where it is most dense but there are likely rocks being thrown around in smaller quantities every which way that could easily hit a plane and destroy it.

Mount Aso is more dangerous than many think.

[MtViewGuy]

I think people forget that the Mount Aso volcanic caldera is NOT small, and there is the constant threat of a major eruption there. There is a chance--though small--that Mount Aso could erupt with the force and volcanic ash output of Mount Pinatubo in 1991--a scale of eruption that could seriously affect the Japanese economy and could even substantially cool the Earth like what Pinatubo's huge ash output did.