LocationMount Fuji is Located in Southern Japan, on Honshu Island, along the Pacific Coast of Honshu. Mount Fuji is well known in Japan for being a significance of beauty and magnificence. It is the highest mountain in Japan soaring at 3,776.24 m. It is high enough to collect snow on its peak. It is one of Japan's three holy mountains, along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It lies about 100 km away from Tokyo, the capital of Japan.
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Type of mountainMount Fuji, whilst a beautiful spectacle, also holds a danger to it. Mount Fuji is a near-dormant volcano, meaning it is safe to be on, but can still be aggravated to erupt by any kind of seismic activity. As shown in the diagram below, Mount Fuji is a composite/Stratovolcano, meaning that the magma that erupt only has one exit, which is the top. It is created in a cone shaped fashion because the magma travels upwards.
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Previous recorded eruptions, Seismic Activity And DestructionThe last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji was 1707 on the 16th of December at approximately 10:00am. The largest amount of magma that poured out was on the first day, and nine days late toward the end of the first eruption. On that day, December the 25th, early in the morning eruptions ceased. The day was unaffected by volcanic eruptions until the evening when eruptions began again and stopped on the 27th of December. Four days passed until volcanic bombs started to spew out. These lasted until late January 1st. Luckily, the lava or volcanic bombs did not cause any casualties and the city of Fuji was not completely destroyed, but many casualties were suffered, especially children, from starvation, as the farmlands were covered in magma, stopping any kind of food reaching the city or surrounding areas.
Just recently, the 2011 tsunami was caused by pressure being built up around the Euro-Asian plate and the Pacific Plate. Whenthe two gave way, it caused an earthquake the size of magnitude 8.9. This earthquake not only created the tsunami, but also put Fuji in fear as an eruption warning was given as unknown seismic activity was happening underneath Mount Fuji. Luckily, the mountain has still ceased to erupt, but i is still unknown if an eruption is imminent of not. |
Response/Prevention/ MINIMIsATION of effectsEver since the eruption in 1707, there has been no recorded eruption. Since the village of Fuji was quite small, and given the distance, nobody came to help Fuji. After they had rebuilt, the mountain was feared greatly. Many people began walking up it to check for eruption. This was their way of checking the mountain and the quantity of magma they could see. They also minimized the chance of destruction by positioning the town further away from the foot of the mountain, and not building the farms on the side the lava ran down. This would stop the crops and livestock being killed by the lava, no longer creating a food shortage, which was the hardest to recover from last eruption.
Nowadays, Fuji has an eruption siren, that can sound when geologists think an eruption is about to occur. Warning messages and safety protocols are in practice nowadays even though the volcano is quite dormant. There is still the small chance of eruption. |
Conclusion of Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji is a relatively safe destination as the volcano is near-dormant, and will need a very big earthquake or a lot of pressure to erupt. Luckily, at the moment, there is not too much pressure in the magma chamber. Fuji is also stationed in a logical place, as the magma will naturally run down the opposite side of the mountain. The worst part about Fuji is that they are vulnerable to volcano bombs. These usually occur after the eruption, and warning would have gotten people out of the city by the time the bombs hit though.