A volcano suddenly erupted in Japan today Friday, May 29, that is located on a remote island of Kuchinoerabu-jima where it ejected plumes of black smoke high up in the sky which alerted authorities to order an immediate evacuation of the island and force airlines to divert their flights.
After an explosive eruption, Mount Shindake released a pyroclastic flow of scorching gas and melted rock and lava from the side of the volcano where it reached the ocean soon enough. Local officials report that this lava flow does not pose any danger to human life.
According to island offical Nobuaki Hayashi, a huge bang was heard throughout the island where black smoke was seen rising from the volcano as residents were gathered in order to conduct an evacuation.
There are currently no reports of injuries from the volcanic eruption where the island is home to 140 residents where they rely on boat travel as their only access to the rest of the world.
Residents are now gathered on top of a roof of an evacuation center, watchful of any imminent volcano activity. The parking lot is full of cars as the volcano spews out smoke and ash across the island.
The smoke plumes were launched into the sky some 9,000 meters up, where officials warn about continued large scale eruptions from the volcano. The lower slopes of the mountain was already blanketed by ash, transforming the island's main harbor, gray.
Before noon, a Coast Guard ship is already en route to the island to evacuate local residents where a military helicopter is also on its way including a disaster management office already set up according to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Flights have been rerouted and diverted where All Nippon Airways will divert some flights from Okinawa to Southeast Asia, but none will be cancelled. Japan Airlines will not change any of its flights.
Kuchinoerabu-jima island is located some 70 miles south from Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu some 620 miles away from Tokyo.
Mount Shindake also erupted last summer where the path of the pyroclastic flow has been off limits to the public ever since and a warning level of 3 on the Japanese scale of 1 to 5 was announced. After this eruption, it is now raised to 5.