Mount Fuji: Alarm over volcanic rumblings

Published on 21/01/2002 00:00

OMINOUS rumblings deep beneath Mount Fuji, an active volcano that has been asleep for nearly 300 years, are sending shivers of alarm through seismologists, local governments and nearby communities.

Even Tokyo - more than 90 miles to the east - would not be immune to a major eruption. In 1707, the last time the volcano exploded, it threw out 850 million cubic meters of ash, leaving a blanket of ash several inches deep across the capital.

The three prefectures closest to Mount Fuji conducted their first joint disaster drill over the weekend, mobilising 8,000 personnel and simulating a massive eruption followed by lava engulfing settlements at the base of the 3,776m (12,388ft) volcano.

The drill was arranged after Japan’s Meteorological Agency reported a worrying increase in activity last year, including hundreds of "low-frequency earthquakes" that indicate the movement of vast amounts of magma.

Fuji tremors averaged ten a month since the agency started monitoring them in 1988, but have shot up to as many as 143 a month over the last year.

Yoshiaki Ida, head of the government’s Co-ordinating Committee for the Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions, said: "Mount Fuji has indicated again that it’s still alive. We really do not know whether an eruption will happen for the time being or not. But we will make preparations ... by intensifying our observations."