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The biggest underwater volcanic eruption Japan has seen since the end of WWII has left shores covered in pumice stone. In one video, stones are seen covering the waves, while images show fishing ports inundated with volcanic rock. The volcano, Fukutoku-Okanoba, is situated on the Ogasawara island chain, about 800 miles from Tokyo. It sits about 25 meters below the surface of the sea.... ...Huge quantities of pumice stone ejected from the volcano have now started washing up along coastlines in the Okinawa Prefecture....

The first jolt, which struck off the coasts of Japan’s remote Bonin Islands, was recorded at magnitude 7.9 and up to 680 kilometers (423 miles) underground, making it one of the deepest quakes of its size. Then another oddity emerged in the cascade of aftershocks that followed: a tiny temblor that, if confirmed, would be the deepest earthquake ever detected. The ultradeep quake, described recently in the journal Geology, is estimated to have struck some 751 kilometers (467 miles) beneath the surface in the layer of our planet known as the lower mantle, where scientists have long thought earthquakes unlikely,...

The Japan Meteorological Agency raised the warning level for Mount Aso to three on a scale of five, warning hikers and residents to avoid the mountain. The smoke rose as high as 3.5 kilometers (11,480 feet) above the crater, with pyroclastic flow pouring out 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mile) down the western slope of the mountain, the agency said. The explosion blew off volcanic rocks as far as 900 meters (2,950 feet) from the crater and ashfalls were detected in several towns in the Kumamoto and neighboring Miyazaki prefectures.

TOKYO (AP) — A volcano in southern Japan erupted Wednesday with a massive column of gray smoke billowing into the sky. The Japan Meteorological Agency raised the warning level for Mount Aso to three on a scale of five, warning hikers and residents to avoid the mountain....

On 14 April, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck the Japanese island of Kyushu. Two days later, Japanese officials reported towering plumes of smoke at Mount Aso, a volcano 42 kilometers away from the quake’s epicenter. A small eruption was occurring. Could the distant earthquake have triggered it? Mount Aso has had far bigger eruptions over the past few years, well before the earthquake occurred, so it was probably just a coincidence. But a new study concludes that the idea of so-called far-field triggering is not so far-fetched. Big earthquakes can slosh around the bubbly magma underneath volcanoes hundreds of kilometers away,...

<p>Plumes of smoke rose some 100 meters into the sky, according to local media and videos captured by witnesses. The eruption of Mt. Aso, located in southern Japan, was recorded at around 11:30pm GMT Friday.</p> <p>Since small eruptions had been recorded at Mt. Aso even before the series of deadly quakes hit the area on Thursday and Friday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency has reportedly decided to keep the alert level at 2 on a scale of 1-5.</p>

Rescuers and a search dog check the damage around a landslide area caused by earthquakes in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture on April 17. ============================================================================================================ TOKYO -- Seismic activity in southern Japan is mystifying geologists and keeping the nation on edge. The island of Kyushu has been struck by a series of significant earthquakes, with the epicenters moving progressively further inland. The cluster started with the deadly quakes that hit Kumamoto Prefecture last Thursday and Saturday. Temblors subsequently rocked the Mount Aso region and neighboring Oita Prefecture. There is a known concentration of faults in the area. Still, experts say it is...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mount Aso, a volcano located on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, erupted on Monday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said, sending up huge plumes of grey ash and smoke. Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" - a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean - and is home to more than 100 active volcanoes.