Some airline flights in Japan have been cancelled as a volcano in the south of the country spewed magma in explosive eruptions that also sent ash a kilometer to two into the air, officials said.
The eruption at Mount Aso is the latest in a series of events that began in August with earthquakes and increases seismic activity, part of the volcano's first active eruption in 10 years,
It sits in the Asosan caldera, one of the most active of Japan's volcanic clusters.
Dozens of flights scheduled to fly out of or into Kumamoto, the nearest city, were canceled as ash fell on cities as much as 25 miles from the volcano.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency has placed it on a level 2 out of a possible 5 levels of warning status, but said it did not expect the eruption to increase in scale.
From 1989 to 1994, the volcano also produced a number of level 2 eruptions.
Located on Kyushu Island about 600 miles southwest of Tokyo, Mount Aso is one of the world's largest volcanoes, possessing one of the globe's largest calderas with a circumference of about 75 miles.
Its central cone group consists of five peaks, the tallest of which is 5,200 feet above sea level.
The caldera has produced giant eruptions in the past, including one around 90,000 years ago that covered the entire Kyushu region in volcanic ash.
A number of webcams have been tracking the volcano's activity.
In recent years Mount Aso has become a popular tourist attraction, with visitors able to drive to a parking area just a minute's walk from the crater.
This has been a source of some concern following the September eruption of another volcano, Mount Ontake west of Tokyo, which killed more than 50 people.
