The Active Volcano in Japan; Mount Fuji

The most famous mountain in Japan is also one of its most dangerous. As, Mount Fuji is still an active volcano which only about 300 years ago produced a destructive eruption which was 30% larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. This video will discuss that eruption and elaborate on how Mount Fuji grew to its modern height.

If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links:

Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers

Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image):

Sources/Citations:
[1] Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA)
[2] Japanese Meteorological Agency, 55, Fujisan
[5] Sano, T. & Fukuoka, T. & Ishimoto, M.. (2011). Petrological constraints on magma evolution of the Fuji volcano: A case study for the 1707 Hoei eruption. Mem. Nat. Mus. Nat. Sci. 47. 471-496.
[6] J. Ewert, A. Diefenbach, D. Ramsey, "2018 Update to the U.S. Geological Survey National Volcanic

0:00 Mount Fuji
1:12 Red Coloration
1:52 Geologic History
3:28 1707 - 1708 Eruption
4:29 Future Hazards

[sometimestraveller]

As someone living in Kanagawa, able to see Mt. Fuji from my back window, this one was specially interesting to me!

[EraX]

I like that you're remaking your old videos and making them better and updated. Keep up the great work!

[TheSpaceEnthusiast-vlwx]

Thanks as always! Mount Fuji is an extremely beautiful volcano!

[warriorinagarden]

These are wonderful, thank you /subbed

[beagleissleeping]

I remember being taught as a kid that the name was Mount Fujiyama.
I learned later that yama is Japanese for mountain.
So basically we were all calling it Mountain Fuji Mountain🤦🏼‍♀️

[carlgusler]

Keep up the great work! Minor typo: On your "25 Most Potentially Dangerous..." list, #21 is spelled Nevado del Ruiz. (Finger slip, I'm sure.)

[andrewjones-productions]

As someone living in Futtsu, Chiba and seeing Mt. Fuji across the entrance of Tokyo Bay, over Yokosuka, I have a perfect view of Mt. Fuji from a huge picture window in my living, this is very interesting. The 10cm ash line practically smashed right through my house. Charming... We'd be safe from any lava flow where I am, but that amount of ash would cause mayhem without a doubt. Makes me think that I should have the silly wood-deck style boards on my balcony removed as that amount of ash accumulating will not only be heavy dry, but if it were to rain would be an enormous amount of weight. A major eruption of Mt. Fuji would undoubtedly be a major disaster here with important transportation links on Japan's busiest and most important trade route be severely hampered and most likely cut. Of course, the most important thing would be the human casualties that would likely occur. The town of Gotenba and many others would suffer untold damage if not annihilation. Nevertheless, the natural disaster that I think we fear the most is a major earthquake in and around the Tokyo area as well as the 'Nankai Trough' earthquake. Both of which the Japanese media enjoy informing us are imminent. Yet, I've lived in Japan for 32 years and these earthquakes have been 'imminent' for the entire period and the media love to talk about 'during the next 30 years', as the standard timeframe. Probably, not without scientific basis of course. One thing we can be sure of in Japan and that there will be some sort of natural disaster soon, somewhere, so at this time of year as we approach the new year, I think that it is in the back of everyone's minds that the coming year be 'disaster free'. That never happens, but ever since 2011, we haven't had anything on that scale and I hope 2024 will continue to see that.

[donaldduck]

It is most excellent that you don't scream how dangerous Mt. Fuji is but give a very balanced and reasonable estimation that it is dangerous, but not as the tabloids claim and my guess is that it is probably among the closest watched volcanoes on Earth.

[Dragrath]

An interesting and dangerous photogenic volcano, that said one factor that particularly stands out to me is its relatively high prominence with snow on its summit what are the risks for landslides or lahars?

[digitaldreamer]

I was still in the US Marines in the late 1970’s when we humped to the top of Mount Fuji twice when the Marines still had a north base up there and Camp Fuji that was destroyed by a large leaking fuel bins during typhoon that killed 13 of my fellow Marines.
Climbing to the top of Mt.Fuji was breathtaking in more ways than one but the views was something that I will never experience ever again.
One of my best friends lives at the base of Mt. Fuji, Yoichi JA1PPH, a fellow Ham operator and owns a nice farm there.
One day soon, I will go visit him and his family there. His daughter lives very close to me while she is attending UH-Manoa.
Mt.Fuji is the most beautiful volcano ever and well worth a trip to Japan for that reason alone. 🤙🏻

[carolynallisee]

It's interesting to note that when a new volcano begins erupting, the first materials it produces almost always has a basaltic or basaltic andesite chemical make up. In the late Dr Peter Francis' book, 'Volcanos: A Planetary Perspective', he mentions the hypothesis that all volcanic eruptions are essentially basaltic in nature, but that this basalt is modified by various processes to form the other types of magma. Has this hypothesis become generally accepted in the volcanological community?
Because of their shape, and because they almost always erupt explosively, basalt isn't the type of volcanic rock I associate with Japan's volcanoes. So hearing that Fuji-san once produced basalt is very surprising indeed.
Mt. Fuji is one of the world's most symmetrical and beautiful volcanos. I note that Mayon is mentioned in another comment, and I saw a picture once of another volcano in South America that was an almost perfect conical shape, with sides perfectly straight rather than concave. I can't recall the name of this volcano, and that photo is decades old now, so it may no longer look like that. But there is something very pleasing to the eye with the smooth, regular slopes of an almost perfectly formed volcano.

[owainw]

I love the videos. It's better than most channels

[dani]

My favorit mount <3 unfortunately I haven't been able to watch it live yet

[zyrians]

Most beautiful landscape vulcano in my opinion is Iceland Vulcano, Fuji and Bromo.

[commentarytalk]

Thank you for the details on Mount Fuji (or Fuji-San) and it's evolution over time and the potential risks it poses. I shall be interested to read up on the historic accounts of the Hoei 1707 eruption and the accounts given by people of that. It certainly is a beautiful sight to behold even from afar.

[GreatGray]

Thank you. Someday I will visit this volcano.

[timl]

I have scoria from the top of Fuji in my study. I collected it when I climbed it.

[danielsasboot]

Took a nap on top of Mount Fuji at the rim. It's not a good idea if you're not wearing sun screen.

[frzferdinand]

1707 was a wild year in Japan. Full rupture of the Nankai megathrust and the last eruption of Fuji. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history until Tohoku 2011. Hoei is pronounced "Hoe-aye".


Mt. Fuji in general is interesting beyond its beauty as it sits right on top of a triple junction where the Philippine Sea, Okhotsk, and Eurasian plates meet.

[jethsemane]

Mount Fuji is Japan's version of Matterhorn because it is situated at the junction of three tectonic plates - Philippine Sea Plate, Amur Plate and Okhotsk Plate.