Residents of Eagle, Alaska, are getting worried about possibly toxic gases wafting into town from a mysterious underground fire on a nearby mountain that's been burning for almost a year.

Nobody seems to know exactly what's burning. Experts suspect it's either a volcano forming or natural gas or oil burning in underground shale deposits. Whatever it is, the fire has been burning on a remote mountaintop, about 40 kilometres north of the community since last October at least.

When the wind is right, residents can smell noxious smoke all over town.

Italian experts have been puzzled by the overnight appearance of a geyser crater spraying clouds of gas 15 feet in the air, yards from the end of the runway at one of Europe's busiest airports.

Motorists on Saturday were alarmed to notice hot, stinking gas spurting from a newly formed crater in the middle of a roundabout close to the perimeter fence of Rome's Fiumicino airport -- less than 900 yards from the end of a runway.

Spectators gathered around the smoking crater, which measured about six feet wide and three feet deep, before firefighters and vulcanologists arrived to seal off the roundabout to prevent inhalation of the gas, suspected to be a cocktail of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and methane. Tests are now underway.

While initial reports suggested the gas came from rotting organic matter trapped underground, one expert said volcanic activity was more likely.

Mount Hobalt, an underwater volcano off the coast of Lembata island, East Nusa Tenggara, briefly erupted on Tuesday but did not cause any damage, officials and residents said. "Based on information received from the head of the Center for Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation [PVMBG], the mountain erupted Tuesday morning," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said. Sutopo called on villagers living around the volcano to remain alert, but added that there was no need for residents to be evacuated from the area. "The PVMBG is closely monitoring the volcano," Sutopo said. Petrus Bote, who heads the district's disaster mitigation office, said that district authorities were preparing for the possibility of a larger eruption by bolstering stocks of emergency relief supplies and increasing manpower around the area.

"Many people, including fishermen, saw the peak of [Mount Hobalt] surface for a few minutes," Peter said on Tuesday. He said that a similar phenomenon took place when the volcano last erupted in May 1999. Tini Thadeus, the head of the NTT Disaster Mitigation Agency, said that the volcano briefly belched a column of smoke and ash that reached between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level at around 7:13 a.m. on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Victor Mado Watun, the island's deputy district chief, said that another volcano, Mount Ile Wereng, which straddles the inland subdistricts of Atadei and Wulandoni, also experienced a brief eruption. Victor said that a three-kilometer radius danger zone around the two mountains has been declared. "The district's disaster mitigation office has sent two teams to the Atadei and Wulandoni. They are monitoring the activity of two volcanoes there and are registering the number of villagers living near them," Victor said. Hobalt is one of the five active submarine volcanoes in Indonesia, a country that sits on three geological fault lines dotted with volcanoes. - Jakarta Times

Activity has remained elevated. A series of ash emissions caused by moderately strong vulcanian-type explosions occurred over the past days. This morning, an ash plume rose to 8,000 ft (2.4 km) altitude and drifted east. Meanwhile, Shiveluch: The volcano continues to extrude a new lobe of viscous lava (visible as the dark patch in the webcam image) at the lava dome, as well as produce occasional (usually small) ash explosions - Volcano Discovery

A major eruption occurred yesterday evening. Starting at 17:45 (local time), the top part of the Caliente lava dome collapsed and produced a series of relatively large pyroclastic flows and explosions. Ash plumes rose more than 2 km to elevations of 4 km altitude. The cause of the eruption was likely the accumulation of pressurized magma and gas under the dome composed of viscous (solid) lava. The pyroclastic flows affected mainly the south, southeast and NNE sides. Bombs from explosive activity were ejected to distances of 500 m. - Volcano Discovery

Jakarta - Indonesian authorities have been warning local villagers in East Nusa Tenggara Province about increasing volcanic activities in the area in recent days.

"The people around the areas should continue to practice caution" despite there not having been fresh volcanic activity on Wednesday, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

The agency reported on Tuesday two volcanoes in the East Nusa Tenggara Province have shown "increasing activities." The volcanoes are subsea Mount Hobalt and and Mount Ili Werung.

It noted Mount Hobalt erupted Tuesday morning, spewing cloud as high as 6,560 feet above the sea level for around two minutes.

Hundreds of evacuees of the eruption of the Rokatenda volcano on Palue island, East Nusa Tenggara, are suffering from illnesses at three rescue centers, sparking claims the government has not provided enough assistance.

"It seems like the central government is not paying enough attention. Is it because it has received low media coverage and so the government has not been that serious in helping?" said Saleh Husin, a legislator from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).

Saleh, who comes from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), said the central government should play a key role in the management of evacuees.

Tini Thadeus, head of the local disaster mitigation agency, said up to 560 people have fallen ill with acute respiratory tract infections as of Wednesday.

Tini noted that local medical teams on the field have been supported by medical teams from the Army and several nongovernmental organizations offering free medication at three evacuation points.

The Sikka district had received plenty of aid, he said, but evacuees in Ropa in the district of Ende and Mbay in the Nagekeo district still require treatment.

One of the world's most active volcanoes showed its ugly side this weekend, erupting and producing an ash cloud that spread out across one southern Japanese city.

Sakurajima, a volcano that sits in the background of the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima and is known for producing hundreds of small explosions per year, erupted Sunday in one of the volcano's largest explosions in decades and perhaps the largest since an eruption in 1914, burying village homes in feet of ash.

The plume from Sunday's eruption reached 16,500 feet (more than 3 miles) before settling down over homes and businesses in Kagoshima and surrounding areas. The ash caused poor visibility and train delays in the city that sits just 5 miles east of the summit of Sakurajima. Residents who ventured outside were forced to wear dust masks to keep from inhaling deadly volcanic glass shards produced from explosive expansion of bubbles in erupting magma.

Some evidence from a YouTube video of the eruption shows what might be small pyroclastic flows generated from the explosion as well.

People in Kagoshima wore raincoats and used umbrellas to shield themselves from the ash after the Sakurajima volcano erupted. Local media said drivers had to turn on their headlights and reported the ash resembled driving through snow at night. Kyodo News said the plume was 5,000 meters high and lava flowed about a kilometre from the fissure.

It also said that railway operators stopped service in the city while ash was removed from the tracks. It reported that no one has been hurt.
Japan has frequent seismic activity. Kyodo cited the Japan Meteorological Agency as saying there are no signs of a larger eruption at Sakurajima but similar activity may continue.

Kagoshima - Mount Sakurajima in Kagoshima erupted in spectacular fashion on Sunday, spewing an ash plume up to 5,000 meters into the air, meteorological officials said.

The eruption of the 1,117-meter Sakurajima near Kagoshima city took place around 4:30 p.m., Jiji Press said.

A large amount of volcanic ash fell in the northern and central parts of the city, causing a delay in train services and temporary poor visibility, forcing car drivers to use their headlights.

The eruption also resulted in a small flow of volcanic material up to about one kilometer from the crater, Jiji said.

It was the 500th eruption this year of Sakurajima. The eruption lasted for about 50 minutes.

Source: Agence France-Presse