Paektusan
| Paektusan | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Ch'ŏnji on the Paektusan |
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| height | 2744 m | |
| location | North Korea , People's Republic of China | |
| Mountains | Changbai Mountains | |
| Coordinates | 41 ° 59 ′ 34 " N , 128 ° 4 ′ 38" E | |
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| Type | active stratovolcano | |
| Last eruption | 1903 | |
| particularities | Highest mountain in the Changbai Mountains and Korea | |
| Chinese name | |
|---|---|
| Traditional characters : | 長白山 |
| Abbreviation : | 长白山 |
| Pinyin : | Chángbái Shān |
| Wade-Giles : | Ch'ang-pai Shan |
| Japanese name (1910-1945) | |
| Kanji : | 白頭山 |
| Romaji : | Hakudosan |
| Korean name | |
| korean alphabet : | 백두산 |
| Chinese characters : | 白頭山 |
| Revised Romanization : | Baekdusan |
| McCune-Reischauer : | Paektusan |
| Manchurian name | |
| Manchurian script : |
ᡤᠣᠯᠮᡳᠨ ᡧᠠᠩᡤᡳᠶᠠᠨ ᠠᠯᡳᠨ |
| Transcription | Golmin Šanggiyan Alin |
The Paektusan (Kor. Whitehead Mountain ), Chinese called Changbai Shan ( ever-white mountain ) or Baitou Shan , is the highest point of the Changbai Mountains . The information on the height varies depending on the source between 2,744 and 2,750 meters. The mountain lies on the border between the North Korean province of Ryanggang-do and the Chinese province of Jilin . It is the highest mountain in Manchuria , the Korean Peninsula and North Korea. The Songhua , Tumen and Yalu rivers have their source on the mountain .
climate
The weather on the mountain is very unstable. The annual average temperature is −8.3 ° C. In summer up to 18 ° C can be reached, while in winter the thermometer can drop to -48 ° C.
Flora and fauna
There are five known plant species in the crater lake, around 168 species are counted on the shore. The perimeter of the mountain forms a habitat for Amur tigers , Amur leopards , bears , wolves and wild boars . The forests are populated by a local deer (so-called Paektusan deer ). A number of birds such as black grouse , owls and woodpeckers are also native to the area.
Volcanic activity
The mountain is an active volcano . It had its largest eruption in the year 946 with a magnitude of almost 7 on the volcanic explosion index , in which about 96 cubic kilometers of material were ejected. The crater or the summit caldera filled to form a large lake called the sky lake .
Other smaller eruptions occurred in 1413, 1597, 1668 and 1702. The last eruption occurred in 1903. Since then the mountain has been inactive and is classified as dormant . Since June 2002, signs of low activity have been recorded again. The time interval between the vibrations decreases. Since 2002 the mountain has also grown by 10 cm. It is believed that a magma pond is responsible for the increase in altitude as well as the rise in surface temperature. Since 2003 there have been an increasing number of earthquakes below the Himmelssee, which caused gases to escape and trees to die.
On October 1, 2006, a Russian satellite measured a significant increase in surface temperature.
A study from South Korea found a connection between tectonic disturbances, which are carried out by the North Korean nuclear weapons experiments on the test site, 116 km away, and a further increase in volcanic activity. But this is generally at least doubted.
Since 2010, two British scientists have received approval from the North Korean government to set up six modern seismometers. The results of the latest research were published in 2017.
Mythological meaning
Korea
The mountain was worshiped as sacred by the people, especially in Manchuria and Korea, very early on . According to Korean tradition, the mountain is the founding site of the Korean people. The founding myth is called the Dangun myth , which is recorded both in the history book of the Northern Wei Dynasty and in the Korean Samguk Yusa . In Samguk Yusa , the mountain was not referred to as Paektusan, but as Taebaeksan ( Kor. 태백산 , 太白 山 ). Towards the end of the 10th century in the Goryeo dynasty , the current Korean name Paektusan appears.
North Korea
According to North Korean sources, the founder of the state Kim Il-sung organized the military struggle for independence against Japan from Paektusan and his son Kim Jong-il was born here. This is highly controversial abroad. In the North Korean reports, the Paektusan is stylized as a "holy mountain". Images, mostly of the Himmelssee, can be found all over the country. Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and his mother Kim Jong-suk - main subjects of the North Korean personality cult - are referred to as "the three military leaders from the Paektu Mountains". The paektusan has become an important symbol for Kim Il-sung's struggle against the Japanese occupation there - the founding myth of the Korean People's Democratic Republic - as well as for the glorified rule of the Kim family.
China
In the 12th century, the Jurchen gave the god of the mountain the title “King who brings prosperity and answers in miracles” and later even “Emperor who brightened the sky with tremendous wisdom”.
Emperor Kangxi of the Sino-Manchurian Qing dynasty declared that his family, the Aisin Gioro, came from the Paektu . He determined a forbidden zone around the mountain, although at the time it was disputed whether it belonged to the Korean Kingdom of Choson or the Empire of China .
Tourist destination
During the summer months, the mountain is a popular destination for foreign visitors. Although tourism in North Korea is increasing recently, most foreign tourists still climb the mountain from the Chinese side. An expansion of foreign tourism on Paektusan similar to the existing K Touristenmgang-san tourist region was planned for May 2008, but has not yet been implemented. According to media reports, hundreds of North Korean households are to be relocated. The North Korean regime is making every effort to prevent any contact of its citizens with nationals of other states.
On the North Korean side of the mountain there are a number of monuments honoring Kim Il-sung . Paektu Spa is a natural spring, the water of which is said to have healing properties. Pegae served as a camp for Korean resistance fighters during the Japanese colonial era. Another attraction is the Hyongje waterfall, which divides into two separate waterfalls after about a third. You can also visit a log cabin where Kim Jong-il is said to have been born. The Paektusan funicular runs here for just over a kilometer .
In 2016 Werner Herzog shot a documentary about volcanoes under the title In den Tiefen des Infernos and also visited the Paektusan.
In the movie
Paektusan is the location of the Chinese action film Savage by Ciu Siwei , released in 2018 . Furthermore, a volcanic eruption of the Paektusan is the central theme of the South Korean disaster film Ashfall , which was released in 2019 .
See also
photos
Drain
Waterfall on the Baitou Shan
Hot Springs
literature
- Nikolai Garin-Michailowski: Korea's dormant volcano. The trip to the Pektusan. Edition Erdmann, Lenningen 2005, ISBN 3-86503-027-0 (travel report from 1898).
Web links
- Paektusan in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
- North Korean website ( January 9, 2012 memento on the Internet Archive )
- Yonson Ahn: China and the Two Koreas Clash Over Mount Paekdu / Changbai: Memory Wars Threaten Regional Accommodation. In: Japan Focus , July 27, 2007 (English)
- Online slide show Paektu-san - Volcano and Myth
Individual evidence
- ↑ Date of ancient volcanic eruption finally pinpointed using fossilized tree ring. In: The Guardian , January 23, 2017.
- ↑ Clivet Oppenheimer et al .: Multi-proxy dating the 'Millennium Eruption' of Changbaishan to late 946 CE . In: Quaternary Science Reviews. Vol. 158 (February 15, 2017), pp. 164-171. doi: 10.1016 / j.quascirev.2016.12.024 .
- ↑ Paektusan in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
- ↑ Hoo Nam Seelmann: Hell under heaven. The Koreans are united by the danger from the depths of the Baek-du-san volcano. In: NZZ , April 16, 2011.
- ↑ Park Si-soo: Major eruption of Mt.Baekdu 'possible'. In: The Korea Times. June 18, 2010, accessed June 19, 2010 .
- ^ Tae-Kyung Hong, Eunseo Choi, Seongjun Park, Jin Soo Shin: Prediction of ground motion and dynamic stress change in Baekdusan (Changbaishan) volcano caused by a North Korean nuclear explosion. In: nature.com. nature publishing group, February 17, 2016, accessed on May 3, 2016 .
- ↑ North Korea: Can an atomic bomb test cause a volcano to erupt? In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved May 6, 2016 .
- ^ R. Kyong-Song, JOS Hammond et al. a .: Evidence for partial melt in the crust beneath Mt. Paektu (Changbaishan), Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and China. In: Science Advances . 2, 2016, p. E1501513, doi : 10.1126 / sciadv.1501513 .
- ^ Erecting memorial stones for the three military leaders from the Paektu Mountains. ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: kcckp.net .
- ^ "300 Households" Will Be Forcibly Relocated by the Baekdu Mountain Tour. In: Daily NK , March 5, 2008 (English).
- ↑ Savage. In: Busan International Film Festival . Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
Remarks
- ↑ Between 1910 and 1945 Korea was part of the Japanese Empire. Since Japanese was the national language at this time, the mountain name 白頭山 Japanese Hakudōsan was read.