Jan 04 (Japan Times) - Snow-capped, symmetrically cone-shaped and awe-inspiringly tall, Mount Fuji has for centuries provided Japanese with something of a spiritual backbone, attracting hundreds of thousands of climbers every year.
But often overshadowed by its beauty is the fact that the mountain straddling Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures is an active volcano with a history of frequent blasts — hence its nickname as the “department store†of eruptions.
Experts say the precise timing of the next big one is unpredictable, but one Japanese volcanologist paints an urgent picture of the situation.
“Mount Fuji is on standby for the next eruption,†said Hiroki Kamata, a professor of volcanology at Kyoto University.
More than 300 years, he pointed out, have elapsed since the last eruption in 1707, an eerily long silence that surpasses the previous interval of around 200 years.
“It was long gearing up for another blast, but shaken by the Great East Japan Earthquake (that struck the Tohoku region in 2011), it is more unstable than ever. If that doesn’t make the eruption imminent, I don’t know what will.â€
The 1707 blast is known as the Hoei Eruption, named after the Japanese era at the time. It spewed a massive amount of volcanic ash that annals show wafted all the way to today’s Tokyo.
Should the mountain erupt again, cinders could rain down on parts of nearby cities such as Gotemba in Shizuoka, with potentially life-threatening results, according to a council of central and local government officials tasked with hammering out safety measures in the event of an eruption. An economic loss of up to ¥2.5 trillion is expected, the council says.
