Sakurajima is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, with eruptions occurring daily. New research suggests the volcano is due for a major eruption in the next 25 years.
Credit: Sakurajima Volcano Research Centre
A Japanese volcano that last erupted in 1914 could be set to blow in the next few decades, new research suggests.
The pool of liquid magma swelling beneath Sakurajima volcano is growing every year — a sign of a growing threat.
"This big reservoir is growing, and it's growing at quite a fast rate," said study co-author James Hickey, a geophysical volcanologist at the University of Exeter's Camborne School of Mines in England.

At the current rate, Sakurajima could erupt catastrophically in about 25 years, according to the study.
The new analysis could also help scientists better forecast when other big volcanoes could erupt, the researchers said. [Raw Video: Volcano in Southern Japan Erupts]

Major eruptions

Sakurajima volcano, located on the southwestern edge of Japan's Kyushu island, last erupted in 1914, killing 58 people and causing a massive flood in the nearby seaside city of Kagoshima. Sakurajima is fed by a pool of magma lying beneath the subterranean Aira caldera, and the filling of this magma reservoir causes the volcano to have minor eruptions roughly every day.
In the 1950s, scientists tried to quantify the risk of future eruptions at Sakurajima by using a simple model, assuming the Earth's surface above the volcano was flat and that the pool of magma was spherical. The model had a big advantage: "You can basically solve it with pen and paper," Hickey told Live Science.
However, over the years, scientists realized that this ultrasimplified model did not match volcanic activity at Sakurajima.

http://www.livescience.com/56067-scientists-forecast-sakurajima-major-eruption.html