Asama, Honshu's most active volcano, has an historical record dating back more than 1300 years. The modern cone of Maekake-yama, shown steaming here at the left, is situated east of the horseshoe-shaped remnant of an older andesitic volcano, Kurofu-yama (right), that was destroyed by a late-Pleistocene landslide about 20,000 years ago. Maekake-yama is probably only a few thousand years old, but has had several major plinian eruptions, the last two of which occurred in 1108 and 1783 CE.

Copyrighted photo by Katia and Maurice Krafft, 1981.

Copyrighted image used with permission. All Rights Reserved. Contact photographer for any usage requests.

Asamayama