Geologically Vulnerable

Not only earthquake, Japan was proved to be a country that needs to foresee eruption of volcano. It took more than two days for the police to realize four dead and twenty-seven fatally injured with no heartbeat on the top of Mt. Ontakesan, which exploded on Saturday afternoon. While a number of hikers were around there in the middle of the fall hiking season, authority of Japanese government had not delivered any warning about activity of the volcano. It is fair to say that Japan is a highly volcanic and earthquaky country.

Ontakesan is an active volcano with 3,067 meters altitude. Although it repeatedly exploded, it was the first major eruption since 1979, when it caused broad fall of ashes. At the time of explosion, there were hundreds of people on the mountain. Although the most descended the hill by themselves, around forty people stayed in small cabins around the peak. Survived hikers brought information that certain amount of people were severely injured. Police confirmed four deaths, which were brought to a town in foot of the mountain by helicopters, on Sunday.

Japan Meteorological Agency declared the explosion as level three, which recommended not to approach the mountain. Academic group called Information Society for Prediction of Volcanic Eruption Prediction determined the eruption was called thermal explosion, dismissing direct eruption of magma. Although the authority realized minor quakes some weeks before, there was no alert for Ontakesan. Explosion abruptly occurred under the crystal clear fall blue sky.

Japan has about one hundred active volcanoes, including Mt, Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan. With old belief that high mountain is a realm of gods, the Japanese like climbing mountains to experience unusual world in their lives. It is unlikely for national authority to regulate their climbing. All it can do is to raise accuracy of prediction. But it is not so easy.

What the Japanese need to learn from the explosion in Ontakesan is to realize a fact that they are living on a small land full of geologic events. Located on the edge of continental plates underground, Japan is often dubbed as “nest of earthquake” or “archipelago of volcanoes.” Reactors for nuclear power generation in Japan are the world most vulnerable to geological activities. Preventing tragedies from natural disasters is as important as war on terror for the Americans. Political leaders have to make deliberate effort to share geologic information with other nations.