Disaster on Mountain Ontake

Disaster on Mount Ontake

 http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/09/30/why-deadly-japan-volcano-erupted-without-warning/

 

      You and four friends are going hiking on vacation while in Japan. You all are having a great time meeting the natives who live on the mountain. Suddenly, a group of adults with younger children by their sides are yelling and screaming in the Japanese language. In school you studied a little of the language so you are able to understand a small portion of what they are saying. Before you can react, ash falls down from the top of the mountain, separating you from your friends. It is dark and very hard to see anything.. You were stuck on Mt. Ontake when it exploded.

 

      Early Saturday morning around 11:53 a.m., the Japanese Mt. Ontake (Japan's second-biggest volcano next to Mt. Fuji) exploded in central Japan. Hundreds of hikers all over the landscape were blanketing in suffocating ash, toxic volcanic gases, and falling rocks. As a result, it has been confirmed that 36 people died, due to cardiac arrest, lung failure and heart failure. Two hundred ten people were left stranded on the slopes and 40 were rescued that Sunday.

      Provided those facts, there's a problem because of the rising levels of hazardous hydrogen sulfide in the air; rescue teams are forced to halt their helping efforts on Mt. Ontake. Some were unable to descend on their own while others were unwilling to take the risk in helping the injured.

 

      "All of a sudden, ash piled up so quickly that we couldn't even open the door," this statement came from a man who worked on the mountain.

 

      There's also a scary though roaming around in the ash-plumed air. It has been 35 years since Mt. Ontake exploded in 1979. This eruption happened without warning so rumors are still circling that Mt. Ontake might explode again. If it doesn't, other so-called dormant or sleeping volcanoes could be next, like Mt. Fuji. One can only wonder....