(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Volcanic eruption creates giant cloud threatening planes
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Volcanic eruption creates giant cloud threatening planes

A volcanic eruption on a remote Russian island north of Japan has created a giant ash cloud that threatens passing aeroplanes, geologists said.

Volcanic eruption creates giant cloud threatening planes
File photo of Matua Island (left) and a satelitte image showing the plume of smoke from Sarychev Peak Credit: Photo: NASA

The eruption of Sarychev Peak on uninhabited Matua Island, part of the Kuril Islands archipelago in the North Pacific Ocean, began on Friday and is still under way.

It has formed an ash cloud five miles high which has spread 310 kilometres to the west, Olga Shestakova, a spokeswoman for the Marine Geology and Geophysics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.

"Information on the eruption has been sent to organisations dealing with the safety of aeroplanes and ships, as the ash cloud presents a threat to aeroplane engines and may lead to communications systems failures," Ms Shestakova said.

Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes on the Kuril Islands, a seismically active archipelago that runs northeast from Japan's Hokkaido Island to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

The southernmost four islands in the archipelago are disputed between Russia and Japan, but Matua Island, where the volcano is located, is agreed to be Russian territory. It is called Matsuwa Island by the Japanese.