Volcano Evacuees Return Home

Most residents of an island near Tokyo returned to their homes Saturday after a volcanic eruption that spewed gray-black ash as high as five miles into the air had forced them to seek shelter, officials said.

The eruption Friday was the largest by 2,686-foot Mount Oyama, which dominates the resort island of Miyake, since the volcano awoke last month from a 17-year slumber.

Though no injuries or damage were reported, the massive column of ash and steam rose menacingly into the sky 120 miles south of Tokyo on a day that nerves in Japan's capital were frayed by a series of earthquakes.

Miyake residents awoke Saturday to find homes and roads covered by as much as eight inches of ash.

Tadashi Kuriyama, an official at Miyake Airport, said both scheduled round-trip flights between the island and Tokyo were canceled Saturday because of a half-inch blanket of dust on the runway. He said the airport would remain closed Sunday.

Island official Shinoru Kurose said that by late Saturday, 149 residents were still staying in a public school gymnasium and would spend the night there.

On Friday, 2,162 people were ordered to evacuate to designated shelters on the island, but began returning home Saturday morning. The island is home to about 4,000 people.

The Meteorological Agency said that Oyama was still sending up white smoke Saturday evening. The eruption on Friday spewed out gray-black ash for about three-and-a-half hours, the agency said.

The evacuation came just eight days after 634 people on the 22-square-mile island were forced to leave their homes temporarily following a smaller eruption.

Friday's was the fifth and most spectacular in a series of eruptions that began July 9.

Japan's Meteorological Agency said that rising underground magma was likely to blame, and warned that volcanic activity on Miyake may continue.

There had been fears that heavy rain forecast for Saturday could add to the misery by causing mudslides, but the island had clear weather.

Seismic activity has been intensifying in the area this week, and an observatory on Miyake had recorded almost 600 tremors Friday when Mount Oyama came to life at 5:02 p.m. local time.

Mount Oyama last erupted in 1983. Five hundred homes were destroyed when lava flowed over its western flank, though timely evacuations prevented any casualties.

Miyake is one of the largest of the Izu islands, a chain of volcanic islands off Tokyo which stretch 335 miles from north to south.

In a separate development, a moderately strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 jolted parts of eastern and northeastern Japan Saturday night, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

The quake, which hit at 9:41 p.m., was centered about 20 miles below the seabed off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture northeast of Tokyo.

The Meteorological Agency said the temblor was unrelated to any of the quakes recorded Friday in the Izu Islands, where two strong ones caused landslies. Another moderate one injured a woman in Tokyo.

By GARY SCHAEFER