M. Satellite images of volcanic clouds from Miyake-jima in 2000

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The Japan Islands	Central part of Japan	The Izu Islands

Miyake-jima volcano, about 160 km south from Tokyo, started eruptive activities at the summit Oyama (814 m) on 8 July 2000.

Big eruptions were recorded on 10, 18 and 29 August with the altitudes of volcanic clouds about 8, 15 and 8 km, respectively.

Since 28 August, volcanic clouds and gas toward Main Island of Japan caused high concentration events of SO₂ at many ground stations 100-400 km leeward from Miyake-jima. Although big eruptions were not recorded since September, and plume heights were less than 3000 m above the sea level, the estimated emission of SO₂ increased to 20-30 kt/day since the middle of September. Southern and south-westerly winds brought the volcanic gas to the Main Island of Japan, where the smells of sulfur and/or H₂S were reported in various places. Since October, gray ash clouds are hardly seen, and the plumes turned out to be white with the heights less than 1500 m above the sea level after the middle of that month. However, very high level of gas emission has continued.

Satellite images

GMS-5/VISSR images

• The eruption at 06:30 on August 10
  
• The eruption at 17:02 on August 18
  
• The eruption at 04:35 on August 29
  

NASA : SeaWiFS images ; August 28 August 29

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This page is based on
N. Iino, K. Kinoshita, M. Koyamada, S. Saitoh, K. Maeno and C. Kanagaki, Satellite imagery of ash clouds of the 2000 eruption of Miyake-jima Volcano, The CEReS International Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Validation of Satellite Data, Chiba, Japan, 2001.

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