Japan 'could be wiped out' by volcano eruption within 100 years
A new study has warned that Japan could be destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption within the next century.
Researchers from Kobe University say that, should the worst happen, the entire population of the country -127 million - could be wiped out.
"It is not an overstatement to say that a colossal volcanic eruption would leave Japan extinct as a country," Kobe University earth sciences professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and associate professor Keiko Suzuki said in a report in the International Business Times.
Japan lies on a band of fault lines and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire.
It said that while the odds of a massive eruption were low, a devastating eruption on this scale cannot be ruled out for a nation that is home to nearly 100 active volcanos.
The study says that a disaster on Kyushu (pictured above in 2013), which has been struck by seven massive eruptions in the past 120,000 years, would bury seven million people in flowing lava and rock within two hours. Volcanic ash could be carried by westerly winds towards the main island of Honshu, making all of the country "unliveable".
Last month, Japan's Mount Ontake erupted, killing 57 people and leaving many missing. It was the country's deadliest volcanic eruption in almost 90 years.
There are currently rumblings from Ioyama, which lies in the volcanically active Lirishima mountain range, less than 50 miles from the Sendai nuclear plant, reports Reuters.
The study calls for new technology to understand the magma reservoirs beneath the earth's crust.
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