A volcano turns deadly

And from other sources:

David Rothery, a professor of planetary sciences at the Open University, said he was surprised that Ontake had erupted without warning.

“This eruption of Ontake was not especially powerful, but distributed several centimetres of ash across areas close to the summit. It seems similar to its 1979 eruption, which is the only other eruption of this volcano in historic times,” Rothery said.

“I am surprised that it erupted without warning because so far as I know there are seismometers on Ontake that are supposed to detect signs of internal magma movement. ‘Sneak’ eruptions lacking in precursor signs are not unknown, but analysis of the records may reveal data that, with hindsight, should have been read as a warning sign. This is how we learn how to do it better next time.”

After I read the previous story, I checked the Quake sheet in the DrudgeReport. No quakes on the main island, even in the low 1-2.5 magnitude range. Just checked again and nothing on the main island for the past 7 days. Tessa, thank you for the research. I learned something.