Center for Catholic Education. Michael Graham, S.J., Xavier's President, has committed the University to engaging students intellectually, morally, and spiritually - with rigor and compassion - toward lives of solidarity, service, and success. This is Xavier's Catholic and Jesuit identity and heritage.
On Saturday, Japan's Mount Ontake volcano erupted without warning, surprising several hundred nearby hikers. Plumes of volcanic gas and ash overtook the fleeing hikers and buried nearby lodges and outbuildings. Though most of the people on Mount Ontake that day were able to escape.
The main effect of explosive volcanic eruptions on vegetation is ash deposition, which produces different degrees of plant burial depending on thickness of the ash layer. The damage depends also on grain size of ash and season of disturbance (Mack, 1981 and Hotes et al., 2004).