Earth Changes
The 1,117-metre Mount Sakurajima near Kagoshima city belched lava seven times from 5.22am (4.22am, Singapore time on Tuesday) and ejected cinders that were found nearly two kilometres from the crater, an agency official said.
'It's possible that the volcano will step up activity, and we have issued a warning to residents living nearby,' he told AFP.
The volcano, about 950km southwest of Tokyo, continued to spout fumes, although they were down from an earlier high of 1,200m.

Santino makes and stockpiles missiles to throw at zoo visitors. Is he truly planning for the future?
Santino evidently knows he's going to get upset, so he plans ahead. The 30-year-old chimpanzee, who has lived in a Swedish zoo most of his life, sometimes gets agitated when zoo visitors begin to gather on the other side of the moat that surrounds his enclosure, where he is the dominant -- and only -- male in a group that includes half a dozen females.
He shows his displeasure by flinging stones or bits of concrete at the human intruders, but finding a suitable weapon on the spur of the moment perhaps isn't so easy. To prepare, Santino often begins his day by roaming the enclosure, finding stones and stacking them in handy piles.

Above, workers prepare the remote operated vehicle (ROV) for its plunge to the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
Geosciences professor Robert Stern's research has him scouring the depths of the ocean. But he's not hunting lost treasure. He and graduate student Julia Robeiro are studying volcanic activity beneath the sea.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Stern and Robeiro undertook the first part of their study Feb. 2-7 analyzing underwater volcanoes in the Western Pacific.
Stern said he has always liked to discover new things. With few places on land to discover virgin territory, the seas were the logical place for Stern. Covering more than two-thirds of the earth's surface, there was no telling what mysteries the depths might reveal, he said.
Date-Time
* Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 00:36:47 UTC
* Monday, March 09, 2009 at 06:36:47 PM at epicenter
Location 16.676°N, 93.111°W
Depth 181.1 km (112.5 miles)
Distances 10 km (5 miles) S of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico
50 km (30 miles) W of San Cristobal d/l Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
360 km (220 miles) NW of GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala
710 km (440 miles) ESE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
Prepared for the 20th anniversary of the tanker accident that spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into one of the West's most majestic waterways, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council said surveys even 14 years after the spill found an estimated 21,000 gallons of crude oil lingering below the surface of beaches - some of it more than 450 miles away from the spill, on the Kenai Peninsula and the Katmai coast.
"At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely," the report said.
The quake's depth was 6.5 miles, according to the USGS.
The epicenter of the quake was at 20.113°N, 155.175°W approximately 10 miles offshore of Laupahoehoe or about 29 miles NNW of Hilo. It struck at 9:44 am.
There was no immediate word on whether the earthquake was felt or caused any damage.
The quake was recorded just after midnight (2 a.m. EDT) at a depth of 47 miles and centered 65 miles south of Guatemala City.
According to the USGS, the earthquake struck at about 5:55 a.m. and had a depth of 4.1 miles.
The quake was centered 7 miles east of Milpitas and 10 miles northeast of San Jose City Hall, according to the USGS.