Krakatau volcano erupts in Indonesia

The Krakatau volcano in Indonesia had a big eruption^*1 on September 5. It happened at about 2:50 in the morning, Japan time.

The Japan Meteorological Agency^*2 announced the news on the same day. This is the office of the Japanese government that watches the weather, earthquakes, and volcanoes. It got the information from the Darwin Volcanic Ash^*3 Advisory Center, a center that watches ash from volcanoes.

The cloud of ash from the volcano rose to about 15,000 meters. That is about 50,000 feet.

The agency is still checking whether a tsunami^*4 will reach Japan. At 8:30 in the morning on September 5, measuring stations^*5 in Japan and in other countries had not seen any big change in the height of the sea. If the agency decides there is no danger of a tsunami, it will say so in a separate notice.

This was the agency's second report about the eruption. If nothing big changes, it will not send more reports.

1. *1 eruption: when a volcano breaks open and throws out hot rock, smoke, and ash
2. *2 agency: a government office that does one kind of work
3. *3 ash: the gray powder that comes out of a volcano
4. *4 tsunami: a very big and dangerous sea wave, often caused by an earthquake or a volcano
5. *5 measuring stations: places with machines that watch and record the height of the sea