Due to the US Government shutdown, the Smithsonian is temporarily closed. The Global Volcanism Program website will remain available but will not be monitored or updated. Status updates will be available on the Smithsonian homepage.
Logo link to homepage

Report on Tomariyama [Golovnin] (Japan - administered by Russia) — April 1987


Tomariyama [Golovnin]

Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 4 (April 1987)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.

Tomariyama [Golovnin] (Japan - administered by Russia) Moderate fumarolic and solfataric activity

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1987. Report on Tomariyama [Golovnin] (Japan - administered by Russia) (McClelland, L., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 12:4. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198704-290010



Tomariyama [Golovnin]

Japan - administered by Russia

43.844°N, 145.504°E; summit elev. 535 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


During a 6 November 1986 aerial survey, moderate fumarolic and solfataric activity was noted at the N foot of the E and W domes and along Goryachee Lake's S shore.

Geological Summary. Tomariyama, also known as Golovnin, forms the southern end of Kunashir Island, across the Nemuro Strait from Hokkaido. Explosive activity has dominated in the formation of this andesitic-dacitic volcano; no lava flows are exposed. The gently sloping stratovolcano is truncated by a 4-5 km caldera that formed during a series of late-Pleistocene eruptions beginning about 43,000 years ago. Several lava domes were subsequently emplaced on the caldera floor. Topographic highs outside the caldera rim are lava domes extruded along a ring structure or an outer caldera. A 1 x 2.5 km caldera lake on the northern side of the inner caldera drains through a narrow breach in the western caldera wall. Solfataric activity occurs at the northern lake shore and at explosion craters (one of which contains a hot crater lake with reported temperatures from 36-100°C) that cut the caldera-floor lava domes. The only known recorded eruption was a minor explosion in 1848.

Information Contacts: G. Steinberg and B. Piskunov, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.