Thousands maintain vigil as Japanese volcano ready to erupt

March 30, 2000
Web posted at: 6:12 p.m. HKT (1012 GMT)

In this story: Underground movement heightens activity Emergency task force set up RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

TOKYO -- White plumes of smoke rising from its crater and widening cracks on its slopes were the latest indications Thursday that a rumbling volcano on a northern Japanese island was about to erupt.

A military helicopter spotted cracks up to 100 meters (330 feet) along the sides of the 732-meter (2,402-foot) Mount Usu, on Hokkaido island, during its patrol, the Meteorological Agency said in an emergency bulletin.

"It is highly likely an eruption could occur in the next few days," the Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruption said in an emergency bulletin.

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Meanwhile, nearly 10,000 people from three towns near the volcano -- Date, Sobetsu and Abuta -- kept a nervous vigil in evacuation shelters, as experts warned that the volcano's eruption was imminent. It would be Mount Usu's first blast in more than 20 years.

Dozens of earthquakes and tremors, including a few measuring close to 5 magnitude, were among the most powerful of more than 3,000 tremors since Sunday. The tremors shook the volcano and surrounding towns hourly.

Seismic activity was intensifying due to the magma underground's movement, said Takao Kimihira of the local Meteorological Observatory in Muroran, which is near the volcano.

Authorities were alarmed by the increasing number of quakes. There are normally 30 quakes in Hokkaido each month, but there have been between 30 and 50 tremors an hour, signaling an imminent eruption.

"The volcanic activity at this time is greater when compared with previous pre-eruption activity," said Naoya Mikami, deputy director of the Meteorological Agency's volcanological division.

Thursday began with a jolt -- a tremor measuring 4.2 -- as if to underscore the official warnings. And after the three days of increasingly strong tremors, nerves in the normally serene hotsprings resort at the volcano's base were beginning to fray.

"I wish it would just erupt and get it over with," said Toshiko Oishi, a 69-year-old housewife who had evacuated to a local elementary school. "But I'm worried about my house, because it's near the mountain."

Thousands of residents were ordered on Wednesday to leave their homes at the foot of the volcano. Nearly 300 residents, mostly elderly and people with physical limitations, had previously requested evacuation. Officials advised another 50,000 people to leave the area.

"We are worried," said Katsuhiro Morita, a spokesman for Date, which is at the mountain's base. "Especially these frequent low rumblings make us feel uneasy."

Japan placed more than 3,000 soldiers on standby to assist with evacuation. Police cars were positioned to block roads leading toward the volcano, and town officials checked for stragglers in evacuated areas. In Tokyo, Japan's central government established an emergency task force at Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's residence.

Japan is one of the world's most eruption-prone countries, with 86 active volcanoes, according to Japan's meteorological agency. The agency describes an active volcano as one that has erupted at least once over the last 2,000 years.

Mount Usu last erupted in 1978, killing two people and leveling nearly 200 homes. The trembling mountain gave enough advance warning then as well, allowing authorities to move residents out and keep casualties to a minimum.

In 1991, several eruptions of the 1,359-meter (4,459-foot) Mount Unzen sent avalanches of hot rocks sweeping through the outskirts of Shimabara, a town in southern Japan, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 2,300 homeless.

Tokyo Bureau Chief Marina Kamimura, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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