Amagi (volcano)
| Amagi | ||
|---|---|---|
 View from the north |
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| height | 1406 m TP | |
| location | Izu Peninsula , Shizuoka , Honshu | |
| Coordinates | 34 ° 51 '46 " N , 139 ° 0' 6" E | |
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| Type | Stratovolcano | |
| Age of the rock | quaternary | |
| Last eruption | 200,000 years ago | |
| particularities | Part of the Fuji Hakone Izu National Park | |
The Amagi ( Jap . 天城山 , Amagi-san , dt. "Heavenly Palace") is an inactive volcano on the Japanese island of Honshu . It is located in the east of Shizuoka Prefecture on the Izu Peninsula and forms its highest point. The Amagi is made up of several peaks lined up next to one another, which reach a height of up to 1406 m TP and are also known in their entirety as the Amagi mountain range ( 天 城 連山 , Amagi-renzan ).
Geography and geology
The Amagi is a stratovolcano that was formed by eruptions during the Quaternary about 600,000 to 200,000 years ago . The Philippine Plate, moving northwards, collided with the Okhotsk Plate and formed today's Izu Peninsula . When the eruptions finally stopped, erosion set in , giving the mountain range its current shape with overlapping cinder and ash cones .
Since the former volcanic crater was largely eroded by erosion, there is no actual elevation with this name. Rather, Amagi describes a group of peaks that line up in an east-west direction over a distance of around 15 km. These are the Tōgasa-yama ( 遠 笠 山 , 1197 m TP ), the Umanose ( 八 丁 池 , 1325 m TP ), the Banjirō-dake ( 万 二郎 岳 , 1299 m TP ), the Bansaburō-dake ( 万 三郎 岳 , 1406 m TP ) and the Kotake ( 小 岳 , 1360 m TP ). In the far west are the Amagi Pass and the Hatcho Pond ( 八 丁 池 , Hatchōike ). The Kano , the longest river on the Izu Peninsula and the only one in Shizuoka Prefecture that flows mostly northwards, has its source nearby .
history
The forests around the Amagi have been subject to extensive logging since the Kamakura period , and during the 16th century the Hōjō gradually took control of wood production. During the early Edo period , the inhabitants of the surrounding villages used the forests mainly for the production of charcoal , which they then sold in Edo . In the 17th century turned Tokugawa - shogunate nine tree species under protection, could be made only for official use and not by individuals. These were Hinoki false cypress , evergreen Japanese oak , Japanese red pine , Japanese zelkova , camphor tree , momi fir , Sawara false cypress , sickle fir and southern Japanese hemlock . Starting from the upper reaches of the Abe River, wasabi cultivation spread here and developed into a specialty of the region alongside tea and shiitake mushrooms.
For a long time, the area around the volcano was only accessible by water along the coast and on narrow paths. This changed around 1880 with the opening of the Shimoda main road, which was accessible to wagons. In 1905 the Amagi tunnel was opened, which made it possible to travel by car. The tunnel, carved into the rock, developed into a tourist attraction due to its description in numerous literary works, in particular in the short story The Dancer of Izu by the Nobel Prize winner for literature Kawabata Yasunari . In 1970 the old tunnel was supplemented by a modern new building.
Several warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy were named after the volcano, including a corvette , a battle cruiser , and an aircraft carrier .
Climate and nature
The Amagi volcano has been part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park since 1955 . The region has a warm and humid microclimate that differs from that of other coastlines. Due to the exposed position of the Amagi, damp winds from the Pacific lead to increased cloud formation and, especially in summer, to very high amounts of precipitation. In the year they can be more than 4000 mm. The abundant rainfall promotes the growth of a temperate rainforest with evergreen plants and deciduous trees on the mountain slopes . At higher altitudes, where it can snow in winter, there are also conifers .
Web links
- Geological Office Datasheet (Japanese)
- Tourist information (English)
- Izu Peninsula Geopark (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Origins of the Izu Peninsula. (PDF, 2.5 MB) Izu Peninsula Geopark, 2018, accessed on November 29, 2018 .
- ^ Conrad Totman: The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Preindustrial Japan . University of California Press , Berkeley 1989, ISBN 0-520-06313-9 , pp. 105-106 .
- ↑ Natsu Shimamura: Wasabi. The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, 2009, accessed November 29, 2018 .
- ↑ About Izu Peninsula Geopark. Izu Peninsula Geopark, 2018, accessed November 29, 2018 .