This is a kind of disaster few people have anticipated. Large numbers of fish cultured in a pen have died after swallowing pumice pebbles, which they apparently mistook for food. The pyroclastic igneous rocks have turned into pebbles after floating on water and rubbing against one another for two months or so.īanks of pumice have covered the surface of the sea along the coasts of Okinawa’s main and remote islands, clogging ports and disrupting the operations of fishing boats. It was one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in Japan since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), according to the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The submarine volcano erupted in August, sending plumes of ash and gas up to a height of 16,000 meters. The central and local governments need to respond to the development as a “wide-area disaster” and work together to provide relief to affected communities and prevent the spread of damage.
Some experts predict that these porous, froth-like volcanic glasses from the Fukutoku-Okanoba volcano in the Ogasawara island chain will ride the Kuroshio current and drift toward the main Japanese islands of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu. Huge rafts of pumice spewed by an undersea volcano have traveled some 1,400 kilometers and started lapping against the shores in southwestern islands of Okinawa and Amami, causing serious effects on social and economic activities.
0 kommentar(er)
