The Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Center reported that a 2.1 high column of ash was seen rising from Tori-shima volcano in the southern Izu Islands by a pilot on 6 July 2013. Toti-shima is a 2.7 km wide 394 m high volcanic island in the Philippine Sea, roughly 200 km south of the nearest settlement on Aogashima Island. As such the volcano presents no significant threat to anybody on the ground, but does present a potential hazard to air-traffic. This is the first observed eruption on the island since August 2002.
Areal photograph of the 2002 eruption on Tori-shima. Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program/Japan Meteorological Agency.
The Izu Islands extend southward from the Izu Peninsula on Honshū, along the boundary between the Pacific and Philippine Plates, where the Pacific Plate is passing beneath the Philippine Plate as it is subducted into the Earth. As the Pacific Plate is subducted it is melted by the heat and pressure of the planet's interior. The lighter fractions of this melted material then rise through the overlying Philippine Plate as magma, fueling the volcanoes of the Izu Islands.
See also Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake in southern Japan, Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake off the coast of Japan, Japan shaken by pair of major Earthquakes, Earthquake shakes Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan and Explosion on Suwanosejima.
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