A brief update while I'm out of town ...
If Japan didn't need more geologic (and man-made) disaster, it now appears that the Shinmoedake cone at Kirishima has started erupting again. The volcano had been relatively quiet for the past few weeks, but **SPECULATION** potentially the Mw8.9 earthquake could have brought on some renewed activity (this is clearly speculation because we have no idea what the circumstances surrounding the new eruption might have been). Hundreds of people had to leave their homes after new explosive activity commenced. The noise from this new activity apparently shattered windows up to 10 km from the volcano and produced a ~4 km / 13,200 foot plume. You can see timelapse of the activity from yesterday* (watch starting ~2:18 for the big explosion) and with some images as well (thanks to Eruptions reader Sherine) from the second set of explosions that the volcano has produced ...
