Mount Ontake

So many of you may have heard on the news that in Japan, Mount Ontake erupted on Saturday the 27th of September at 11:52

Ontake, being the 2nd largest volcano in Japan at 3,067, is a major site for families and travelers to go hiking, so on the day, there were around 250 people on the mountain. While most were able to escape during the eruption, many close to the summit were caught in the ash cloud. By the 29th, searches had been going on for a couple of days, and had so far only found 36 bodies, 12 being dead. Currently, the searches have been postponed because of poisonous gases still being released from Ontake.

Ontake is around 200 km from Tokyo and its last big eruption was in 1979. Ontake has 5 crater lakes which meant the reason for the unexpected explosion was because it was a phreatic eruption(magma heating water which erupts bring ash, rocks and gases with it). compared with other Stratovolcanoes, Ontake had barely any lava flow.

This footage was taken by a hiker and his family caught in the ash cloud.

#ash #volcano #japan #phreatic #eruption