Pictures: Volcano Lightning Electrifies Japan Eruption

Electric Tentacle From Kirishima

Photograph from Takaharu/Reuters

A "tentacle" of lightning stretches over Japan in a long-exposure picture taken Thursday of the ash plume rising from the Kirishima volcano complex.

Kirishima is a grouping of about 20 volcanic peaks on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu (map). The site featured in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, serving as the secret base of the main villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Although the complex is often active, Wednesday's eruption is the strongest recorded atKirishima since 1959, ABC News reports.

Published January 28, 2011

Volcanic Ash Adrift

Photograph from Kyodo/Reuters

A dense plume of ash rises and spreads from Japan's Shinmoedake peak on Thursday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency raised its volcano alert level Wednesday and warned people living near the peak to evacuate. But agency volcanologist Sei Iijima told ABC News that he doesn't think the eruption is a sign of bigger things to come.

"You can never say never with a volcano," Iijima said. "But the lack of magma movement beneath the surface leads us to believe that this activity won't lead to a large-scale eruption."

(See related pictures: "Merapi Volcano Ash Smothers Indonesian Villages.")

Published January 28, 2011

Photo Opportunity

Photograph from Kyodo/Reuters

A man in the town of Takaharu snaps a picture Thursday of ash rising from Japan's Shinmoedake peak, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) away. The town hosts an evacuation center for people who left villages closer to the peak that were littered with volcanic debris.

So far,the thick ash has also forced cancellation of a handful of domestic flights and several railway trains in Miyazaki Prefecture. (Related: "Volcanic Ash Stops Europe Flights—Why Ash Is Dangerous.")

Published January 28, 2011

Volcano Plume Seen From Space

Image courtesy JAXA/NIES/MOE

Japan's Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, or GOSAT, captured an image of the Kirishima plume on Wednesday, before the increase in activity that prompted the call for evacuations.

Built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the GOSAT spacecraft measures concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, two major greenhouse gases. The false-color picture shows the volcano's plume spreading southeast.

Published January 28, 2011