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Suwanose volcano, Japan
A steam plume rises above On-take, the summit crater of Suwanose-jima volcano.
The 8-km-long, spindle-shaped island of Suwanose-jima consists of a stratovolcano with two historically active summit craters.
The dipping escarpment at the top of the photo is the NW wall of a large breached crater that extends to the sea on the east flank.
The horseshoe-shaped crater was formed by edifice collapse.
Suwanose-jima, one of Japan's most frequently active volcanoes, has been in a state of intermittent strombolian activity since 1949.
The 8-km-long, spindle-shaped island of Suwanose-jima in the northern Ryukyu Islands consists of an andesitic stratovolcano with two historically active summit craters.
Only about 50 persons live on the sparsely populated island.
The summit of the volcano is truncated by a large breached crater extending to the sea on the east flank that was formed by edifice collapse. Suwanose-jima, one of Japan's most frequently active volcanoes, was in a state of intermittent strombolian activity from On-take (Otake), the NE summit crater, that began in 1949 and lasted until 1996, after which periods of inactivity lengthened.
The largest historical eruption took place in 1813-14, when thick scoria deposits blanketed residential areas, and the SW crater produced two lava flows that reached the western coast.
At the end of the eruption the summit of On-take collapsed forming a large debris avalanche and creating the horseshoe-shaped Sakuchi caldera, which extends to the eastern coast.
The island remained uninhabited for about 70 years after the 1813-1814 eruption.
Lava flows reached the eastern coast of the island in 1884.
PHOTO SOURCE: Photo by Yukio Hayakawa, 1998 (Gunma University), courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Global Volcanism Program, used with permission.
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