Hundreds of
earthquakes have struck an active volcano in central Japan over
the past two days, raising fears of an eruption, the Meteorological
Agency said Tuesday.
Mount Asama,
on the border of Nagano and Gunma prefectures, was shaken by 138
tremors Monday, compared with about 10 daily in recent months.
By late Tuesday, there were an average of 40 volcanic tremors
an hour.
The local
observatory in Nagano prefecture said it was too early to know
if the quakes would cause Mount Asama, 90 miles northwest of Tokyo,
to erupt. The tremors are too weak to be felt by humans.
No one was
evacuated because of the increased activity.
The volcano,
which spews small amounts of steam, has been calm for 217 years.
A major eruption of the 8,423-foot volcano in 1783 killed 1,151
people.
Earlier this
month, all 4,000 residents on Miyakejima, an island 118 miles
south of Tokyo, were forced to leave the island after a volcano
there erupted several times since July. On Sept. 4, Mount Komagatake
on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido erupted for the first
time in nearly two years, spewing ash and white smoke.
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