| Mount Ontake | |
|---|---|
| 御嶽山 | |
 Viewed from Kuzo Pass ofRoute 361 | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 3,067 m (10,062 ft)[1] |
| Prominence | 1,712 m (5,617 ft)[2] |
| Listing | Ultra, Ribu 100 famous mountains in Japan |
| Coordinates | 35°53′34″N137°28′49″E / 35.89278°N 137.48028°E /35.89278; 137.48028[1] |
| Geography | |
  Mount Ontake Japan | |
| Location | Gifu andNagano,Chūbu region, Japan |
| Topo map(s) | Geographical Survey Institute, 25000:1 御嶽山, 50000:1 御嶽山 |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | Stratovolcano |
| Last eruption | October 2014 |
Mount Ontake (御嶽山,Ontake-san), also referred to asMount Kiso Ontake (木曽御嶽山,Kiso Ontake-san), is the 14th-highest mountain and second-highestvolcano inJapan (afterMount Fuji) at 3,067 m (10,062 ft).[3] It is included inKyūya Fukada's 1964 book100 Famous Japanese Mountains.
Mt. Ontake is located around 100 km (62 mi) northeast ofNagoya, and around 200 km (120 mi) west of Tokyo, at the borders ofKiso andŌtaki, Nagano andGero, Gifu. The volcano has fivevolcanic crater lakes, withNi no Ike (二ノ池) at 2,905 m (9,531 ft) being the highest mountain lake in Japan.[citation needed]
Ontake is a majorsacred mountain, and followingshugendō practices, actors and artists have gone to the mountain to put themselves intotrances to get divine inspiration for their creative activities.[4]
Ontake was thought to be inactive until October 1979, when it underwent a series of explosivephreatic eruptions which ejected 200,000 tons of ash, and had avolcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 2.[5] There were minor non-explosive (VEI 0) phreatic eruptions in 1991 and 2007.[5]
On September 27, 2014, at around 11:53 a.m.Japan Standard Time (UTC +9),[6] the volcano erupted with a VEI of 3.[7][8] The eruption wasphreatic—caused by groundwater flashing to steam in ahydrothermal explosion—and there were no significantearthquakes that might have warned authorities in the lead up to it.[9] The eruption was an extremely rare phenomenon, which made it difficult to take precautionary measures.[10][11] At the time of the eruption, several hiking parties were undertaking ascents and descents of Ontake, with emergency descents having to be undertaken in the presence of ash clouds and falling rocks.[12] 63 people were killed; five bodies were never found.[13]
| Hokkaidō | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tōhoku region Jōshinetsu region | |||||||||
| Kantō region | |||||||||
| Chūbu region |
| ||||||||
| Western Japan | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
