Buried Torii Gate, SAKURAJIMA 1

This is “Buried Torii Gate” at the Kurokami district in Sakurajima.

Buried Torii Gate at Kurokami District

The Torii gate about 3 meters high was filled almost totally with a large amount of volcanic ash from Mt. Sakurajima Volcano when Mt. Sakurajima had a large eruption in 1914.

Mt. Sakurajima is one of most active volcano in the world.

Last year, 896 explosive eruptions were observed by Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory.

This year, 758 explosive eruptions have been already counted as of October 10^th.

A caution zone is designated by Kagoshima city within 2km from the center of the craters to ban the access to the craters.

Volcanic alert level is the 3^rd place, level 3, in Japanese five-level rating system.

It is said that a volume of magma equivalent to 90% of the volume of 1914 eruption has already filled a magma chamber just below the Kinko bay and the magma chamber will be filled in 10 or 20 years.

However, according to Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory, there seemed to be no immediate sign that the volcanic activities was going up.

And remember, the most advanced monitoring system in the world has been installed around the volcano and it is monitored 24/7.

Be careful for ash fall when you go to Sakurajima!