sending debris up to 5000 m (16,000 ft). In 2011 and 2012, Sakurajima experienced several significant eruptions; volcanic activity continued into 2013. Photographer Martin Rietze captured a rare picture of lightning within the ash plume in January 2013 during a magma ejection, which was a NASA astronomy pic of the day in March 2013. On August 18, 2013, the volcano erupted from Showa crater and produced its highest recorded plume of ash since 2006, rising 5,000 metres high and causing darkness and significant ash falls on the central part of Kagoshima city. The eruption occurred at 16:31 and was the 500th eruption of the year. In August 2015, Japan's meteorological agency issued a level 4 emergency warning, which urges residents to prepare to evacuate. Scientists warned that a major eruption could soon take place at the volcano; it eventually did erupt around 20:00 on February 5, 2016. After a long pause of eruptions at the vent, the eruptions abruptly stopped there and returned to the Showa crater, on April 4, 2016, some 8–9 days preceding major earthquakes on the Median Tectonic Line near Kumamoto, Japan. Then, three months later, on July 26, it spewed volcanic ash into the air. On October 3, 2020, at 07:35 UTC, the volcano erupted once again, this time from the Aira caldera. A volcanic ash advisory for aviation was issued by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Tokyo (VAAC) at 07:43 UTC, showing the ash cloud to be stationary and reaching FL100 (10,000 feet). On July 24, 2022, at 20:05 JST, an explosive eruption occurred at the summit crater of the volcano, and cinders scattered up to 2.5 km from the crater. Following this eruption, at 20:50 JST, the Japan Meteorological Agency raised the eruption alert level from Level 3 to Level 5, the highest level, and urged maximum precaution and evacuation. This was the first time an eruption alert level 5 has been issued for Sakurajima. On February 9, 2023, an eruption occurred at the Showa crater on Sakurajima at at 10:52 JST. The plumes had risen to 1000 meters at 11:10 JST, according to the Kagoshima Meteorological Office. People in a 2-km radius was sent a warning by the local weather observatory against pyroclastic flows and falling rocks. Timeline Culture Sakurajima is the title of a 1946 short story, written by the Japanese writer Haruo Umezaki, about a disillusioned Navy officer stationed on the