Japanese volcano erupts

Times Live ^ | 03/13/11

[KevinDavis]

A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted Sunday after nearly two weeks of relative silence, sending ash and rocks up to four kilometres (two and a half miles) into the air, a local official says.

It was not immediately clear if the eruption was a direct result of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked northern areas Friday, unleashing a fierce tsunami and sparking fears that more than 10,000 may have been killed.

[chooseascreennamepat]

“What’s going on?”

The same things that have been going on since the beginning of time.

[PapaBear3625]

It’s possible that there is some interaction between the earthquake and volcanic magma movements. Magma might have softened rock along a fault line, or building stress may have created a channel for magma to move in.

[RayChuang88]

I should remind people that the Home Islands of Japan are in the same geological situation as the Indonesian Archipelago--they're built up due to nearby subduction of tectonic plates. That's why Japan has many earthquakes and a lot of active volcanoes, and similar to the situation in Indonesia.

Indeed, even the famous Mt. Fuji is still classed as an active volcano even though it has not erupted in over 300 years! The majority of volcanoes in Japan are pretty much listed in the active status even now.

[rfp1234]

Yes. Japan is at a majot plate boundary.

The quake generates a lot of friction between the tectonic plates, and the resulting heat will mobilize the magma. If there's enough heat, the magma will eventually erupt.

This volcano erupted in January, but there may have been smaller quakes at that time.

[skeptoid]

[Windflier]

War? China has an amazing military. And strategically, I can’t imagine a better time to attack...

And what, pray tell, would China gain from such an ill-advised adventure? They'd embroil the entire planet in a war of unprecedented devastation and misery, right at a time when their country is finally ascending as a world power.

In the end, China would be thrown right back into the miserable poverty they've endured for centuries.

I think not.

[KevinDavis]

Please stop it.. I’ll give them a prayer.. That is it..

[Pete-R-Bilt]

Godzilla!

[BuckeyeTexan]

I started wondering what you’d do with a couple of thousand tons of irradiated lizard meat lying in the middle of the street. How do you go about cleaning that up?

You tell liberals that conservatives have been stockpiling it for retirement. They'll swoop in like vultures to redistribute it.

[SandRat]

He’ll belch fire from both ends. lol

[Terpfen]

I wonder how the Japs will rationalize these disasters?

There is no rationalizing natural disasters. They happen. You rebuild and plan better for the next one.

[SevenofNine]

Talk about that ROFL you got that right

[SunkenCiv]

whoops.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2688034/posts

[genetic homophobe]

Of course the changes happen in slow motion - like watching a tree grow. whatever froze the woolly mammoths wasn't in slow motion...

[SandRat]

[Melchior]

No, Obama would say America deserved this.

[rlmorel]

It is getting crazy. Some of the hysteria is just overdone.

The Japanese are going through a trial of natural forces very much unlike those visited on many industrialized countries over the last several hundred years.

I will pray for their deliverance.

[Former Fetus]

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers (2 Peter 3:3).

[americanophile]

So this eruption sequence really began in January. There is certainly a remarkable about of dramatic activity in the Pacific rim. Perhaps the Okhotsk Plate is on the move; that could possibly explain the increased volcanic activity in the south and the monster quakes in the north.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Well, at least Bush is to blame...<<<

No, this is clearly Cheney's work. Bush doesn't have the connections with the Devil that Cheney has - Bush is too dumb to do this, Cheney is evil enough to do this - even to the United States.

...a possible front page, below the fold, NY Times article on Monday! Perhaps even an Editorial.