Sakurajima (, literally "Cherry Blossom Island") is an active stratovolcano, formerly an island and now a peninsula, in Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. The lava flows of the 1914 eruption connected it with the Ōsumi Peninsula. It is the most active volcano in Japan. As of April 2021, the volcanic activity still continues, dropping volcanic ash on the surroundings. Earlier eruptions built the white sand highlands in the region. On September 13, 2016, a team of experts from Bristol University and the Sakurajima Volcano Research Centre in Japan suggested that the volcano could have a major eruption within 30 years; since then two eruptions have occurred. Sakurajima is a stratovolcano. Its summit has three peaks, Kita-dake (northern peak), Naka-dake (central peak) and Minami-dake (southern peak) which is active now. Kita-dake is Sakurajima's highest peak, rising to above sea level. The mountain is in a part of Kagoshima Bay known as Kinkō-wan. The former island is part of the city of Kagoshima. The surface of this volcanic peninsula is about . History Geological history Sakurajima is in the 25 km (15 mi)-wide Aira caldera, which formed in an enormous "blow-out-and-cave-in" eruption around 22,000 years ago. Several hundred cubic kilometres of ash and pumice were ejected, causing the magma chamber underneath the erupting vents to collapse. The resulting caldera is over across. Tephra fell as far as from the volcano. Sakurajima is a modern active vent of the same Aira caldera volcano. Sakurajima was formed by later activity within the caldera, beginning about 13,000 years ago. It is about south of the centre of the caldera. Its first eruption in recorded history was in 963 AD. Most of its eruptions are strombolian, affecting only the summit areas, but larger plinian eruptions have occurred in 1471–1476, 1779–1782 and 1914. Volcanic activity at Kita-dake ended around 4,900 years ago: later eruptions have been centered on Minami-dake. Since 2006, activity has centred on Showa crater, to the east of the summit of Minami-dake. 1914 eruption The 1914 eruption began on January 11 and was the most powerful in twentieth-century Japan. The volcano had been dormant for over a century until 1914. Almost all residents had left the island in the previous days; several large earthquakes had warned them that an eruption was imminent. Initially, the eruption was very explosive, generating eruption columns and pyroclastic flows, but after a very large earthquake on January 12, and