<p>On November 23, 2013 violent eruptions shook Japan’s Sakura-jima volcano. A series of powerful explosions were reported, with plumes of ash rising up to 15,000 ft (4.5 km).
</p><p>Ash emissions continued on November 24, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. A dense plume of ash over the Japanese island of Kyushu can be seen rising from the Showa crater and blowing over the island of Kyushu, to the northeast.
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Currently Japan’s most active volcano, Sakura-jima explodes several hundred times each year. These eruptions area usually small, but the larger eruptions can generate ash plumes rising high over the 3,410 foot (1,040 m) summit.
<p>Jeff Schmaltz
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team,
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NASA GSFC
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2013-12-07">Plume from Sakura-jima, southern Japan</a>