Japan

japan: a place to discover

Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is an active volcano, which most recently erupted in 1707. It stands on the border between Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures and can be seen from Tokyo and Yokohama on clear days.

MOUNT FUJI: ANALYSIS

The tectonic background around Mount Fuji. (left) Active plate boundary around the Japanese islands. Black lines represent plate boundaries from Seno et al. [1996]. (right) Tectonic setting around Mount Fuji. Depth contours indicate the upper surface of the subducting Philippine Sea (PHS) plate estimated by Nakajima et al. [2009]. Black crosses represent hypocenters with a magnitude 0.1 or larger at depths more than 20 km, between 2001 and 2005 located by JMA. Gray arrows show the relative plate motion between the PHS plate and the Eurasian plate.

Geology of Japan

The Japanese archipelago is part of the island arcs along the northeastern margin of the Pacific Ocean. It is located at the eastern end of the Eurasian Plate at the junction of the Pacific and Philippine Sea Plates. Geohistorically, Japan had been built by the subduction tectonics including accretionary tectonics, large scale metamorphism, magmatism and volcanism. Its geology is composed mainly of accretionary complex, metamorphic rocks, plutonic and volcanic rocks and surface sediments.