Impressive Video of the Latest Eruptions from Japan's Sakurajima

An explosion from Japan's Sakurajima caught via webcam - you can see blocks from the explosion hitting the slopes of the volcano (small, grey spots). Image from July 24, 2012 courtesy of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Very brief post today, but I wanted to share the video of yesterday's eruption of Sakurajima. Regular readers of this blog will know that Sakurajima is almost always erupting, usually in the form of small explosions from one of the craters (Minami-dake and Showa). However, occasionally things get a little noisier at the restless volcano - and over the last few days, the explosions were especially impressive, sending ash to Kagoshima, located across the aptly-named Kagoshima Bay. Some of the plumes from these explosions reached as high as ~6 km / 20,000 feet. You can watch the video of some of the explosions here - and it shows some impressive shockwaves caused by the explosions at the vent (however, I am a little frustrated that they decided to speed up the eruptive action). There is also a great compilation of timelapse video from the volcano over the last few days (courtesy of Eruptions reader Sherine). Don't forget, there are abundant webcams pointed at Sakurajima as well, so you can see some of this action as it happens.