Quakes Rock Japanese Volcanic Island

Thousands of evacuees sheltered as earthquakes rattled Japan's Miyakejima volcanic island Wednesday but experts downgraded the threat of a big eruption.

Violent tremors, one measuring 4.7 on the open-ended Richter scale, rocked the island's 813-meter (2,683-foot) Mount Oyama volcano in a sudden burst of activity, said a Meteorological Agency official.

The tremors later subsided.

"We cannot rule out the possibility of an eruption on the western coast of the island or the sea near the western coast," said Meteorological Agency vulcanologist Tsutomu Takeuchi.

But "we believe there is no possibility of an eruption at the top of the mountain or at the eastern coast," he told a news conference.

In the first 16 hours of the day, there were 3,862 earthquakes near the island, home to 3,900 people about 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Tokyo, officials said.

Movement detected in the Earth's crust suggested magma, or molten rock, was creeping westwards beneath the seabed and away from the volcano, reducing the chance of an eruption on land.

A navy plane with infra-red equipment had detected some warming of the nearby ocean, the agency said.

A total of 2,144 people from the eastern and western sides of the volcano took shelter in a school gymnasium and other public buildings in the safer northern area.

But island authorities allowed some farmers to return home briefly to feed livestock.

"At a morning meeting, we decided to let 17 farmers return home for two hours so they could feed their pigs, chickens, and cattle," said Miyakejima island government official Norio Ooki.

"Unfortunately, the remaining evacuees still have to stay in shelter."

All four of Wednesday's Air Nippon commercial flights were cancelled between Tokyo and Miyakejima, an island formed out of the volcano which has become a popular weekend diving spot.

A flotilla of Maritime Self-Defense Force and private ships remained anchored off the island ready to help in any full-scale evacuation, said a force spokesman, Yoshikazu Hirose.

Eight destroyers, two mine-sweeper escort ships, a transport ship, fuel ship and a submarine salvage vessel, with total capacity for more than 9,750 passengers, stood by.

"Currently we are dispatching heavy equipment like fire-fighting trucks and pumps on a naval transport ship," Hirose added.

"Four helicopters are on Miyakejima island and they are standing by for any emergency at this moment."

No further helicopter deliveries of essential items were planned for now after food and blankets were dropped off the previous day, the spokesman added.

The volcano erupts roughly every 20 years. When it last blew in 1983, about 500 homes were buried by lava on the western side of the island but there were no injuries.

Japan's 732-meter (2,415-foot) Mount Usu volcano on the northern Hokkaido island resumed activity on March 31 after 22 years, but has calmed down after spewing ash and rocks in a series of steam eruptions.





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