2008-01-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

Fuji Volcano is the highest in Japan, rising 3776 m above sea level in the form of a typical cone about 50 km across the base. At the summit of the volcano is a circular crater about 500 m across and as much as 250 m deep below the highest point (35o21'N, 138o43'E). The upper half of the volcano is all in white color in winter, small patches of permanent icy snow left on the shady slopes in and about the summit crater are usually seen even in midsummer. But any traces of past glaciation are found nowhere on the volcano. The reason is nothing but the fact that the volcano is virtually covered almost everywhere with lava-flows and pyroclastics ejected by the volcanic eruptions that have occurred since the end of the last period of the Quaternary Ice Age.

The Fuji