[Infowarrior] - Japan: Blofeld's Japanese volcano base erupts

[Richard Forno]

(as if the quake, tsunami, and nuclear issues aren't enough, right?  ---- rick)

Blofeld's Japanese volcano base erupts

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/14/shinmoedake_eruption/

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Science, 14th March 2011 15:49 GMT

The Japanese are certainly having a rough time of it, and following last Friday's devastating magitude 9.0 earthquake, Shinmoedake volcano on the southern island of Kyushu erupted yesterday.

The volcano had been dormant for 52 years until showing signs of stirring in January. It's currently spewing ash and rock some 6,000ft into the air while a lava dome ominiously grows inside the crater.

Shinmoedake is some 950 miles from the epicentre of last week's quake, and experts can't say whether or not its latest outpouring is as a result of that event.

The mountain famously appeared in 1967 Bond outing You Only Live Twice, when it was the location of Blofeld's secret rocket base. Fans will recall it met an impressively pyrotechnic end at the hands of 007. ®