Mount Fuji Research Paper

The volcanic mountain I have chosen is Mount Fuji also known in its proper term; Mount Fujiyama. It’s located near the pacific coast on Honshu Island in southwest of Tokyo, Japan. Here is Mount Fuji on a world map: And here it is on a regional map:

Mount Fuji is one of the most beautiful volcanoes in the world and is a well-known tourist attraction. There are many definitions of the word “Fuji”; some are wealth, abundant and immortal. The ancient samurais used Fuji as a training area for hundreds of years. The volcano was also painted in many ancient artworks and it still is today. Mount Fuji is 3776 meters tall (easily the tallest mountain in japan) and has a near perfect cone (unlike other volcanoes), which makes it so beautiful. Fuji is a
composite volcano and has a base diameter of almost 50 km and culminates in a 500 m wide and 250 m deep summit crater.
It has an andesite core which makes it an explosive volcano. It is also a dormant volcano. The volcano overlies many older volcanoes, including Komitake and Ko-Fuji (Older Fuji), which was active 100,000 - 10,000 years ago. From 8000 to 4500 years ago, Fuji's activity was mainly explosive before another effusive cycle took place between 4500 to 3000 years ago. In the past 3000 years, large explosive eruptions occurred in between phases of milder effusive activity. From 3000 to 2000 years ago, most eruptions took place at the summit, while a large number of flank eruptions occurred during the past 2000 years, forming more than 100 flank cones. The most known eruption of Mt Fuji was on 26th October 1707 and was Fuji's largest during
historical time. The eruption announced it self with a 8.4 magnitude earthquake, shattering Honshu Island. The major eruption started on 16th December 1707 from a new vent on the southeast flank of the volcano erupting a sub-plinian column of ash and pumice, turning into basaltic lava fountaining after 6 hours into the eruption. On the first day of the eruption, 72 houses and 3 Buddhist temples were destroyed in Subassiri, a town 10 km from the volcano. Ash fell all over the south Kanto plain, Tokyo, and on areas of the northwest Pacific Ocean 280 km from the volcano. The total volume erupted over 16 days was estimated to 0.68 cubic km of magma. Violent explosions were recorded until 25-27 December, before the eruption calmed down and ended on 1st January 1708.

The new Mount Fuji was made 10,000 years ago. It was made by the subductal and convergence movement of the Amurian plate (associated with the Eurasian tectonic plate), the Okhotsk plate (associated with the North American plate) and the Filipino plate. It has formed from the upwelling magma produced from the melting subducted plates: Amurian plate (associated with the Eurasian tectonic plate), the Okhotsk plate (associated with the North American plate) and the Filipino plate buried deeply beneath Japan. As the plates sinks into the mantle the heat and pressure melt it and the resulting magma rises from the batholith into the vent and onto the surface of the crust where it is erupted as a volcano. This is also what happened in 1707. Surprisingly no one died from the eruption of Fuji in 1707. Many did die, but not necessarily by the eruption. Most died from the ash of the volcano.