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Mount Fuji 'under more pressure than last eruption'

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© 2012 AFP

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Every time I pick up a newspaper they've found a new fault line somewhere, including one that runs from Ikebukuro to Ginza.

That's not a fault line. That's the Marunouchi Line!

24 ( +25 / -1 )

How do they know what the pressure in the magma chamber was 300 years ago?

16 ( +15 / -0 )

How do they know what the pressure in the magma chamber was 300 years ago?

Wow, to me that's like asking how does everyone know Dinosaurs existed, or how do they know the age of mummified bodies? Science is the appropriate answer you're looking for.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Can't they remove the pressure inside the volcano?

Sure, open the valve stem and just bleed it off.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Seeing as how Mt. Fuji assumed its present shape just 8,000 years ago (according to geologists), that makes it a baby as far as volcanoes go. Not too worried about the fault line underneath it. Every time I pick up a newspaper they've found a new fault line somewhere, including one that runs from Ikebukuro to Ginza.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

FullM3taLSEP. 08, 2012 - 06:43PM JST *How do they know what the pressure in the magma chamber was 300 years ago?

Wow, to me that's like asking how does everyone know Dinosaurs existed, or how do they know the age of mummified bodies? Science is the appropriate answer you're looking for*.

Fair enough, but how do they know using science?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Alright, now I am worried. I downplayed just how much of a threat Fuji is but now I take it much more seriously. I hope this thing does not erupt anytime soon.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

If you read the weeklies, they are always trotting out a new disaster scenario every other month. I have often heard about "if" Fuji blew and the damage this and environment that.

Not say it won't blow (and, yes, anybody in the nuke industry better have their just in case backups ready), but just that if you want to sit around fearing everything, there's a million things you could come up with to fear...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I'll keep that in mind when i go hiking up Fuji next week. 300 years....I'll take my chances

Volcanic eruptions are almost always preceded by swarm earthquakes........like dozens per hour........as the magma rises beneath the mountain. So until that happens, you should be okay for a clime up and down.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

lol...you moved to Australia because of volcano fears!!?? LMAO

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Iowan, Mt Fuji's previous eruptions have been explosive

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Don't forget to remover your contact lenses immediately since there is risk of damage to the cornea. (the contact lenses may stick to your eyes.)

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I'll keep that in mind when i go hiking up Fuji next week. 300 years....I'll take my chances.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I would not laugh at this news.

This news reminds me a city of Pompeii-Italy how the city was buried under ashes after vocanic eruption.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Techall... Good to keep an ear and eye out for... Cause then thats when I head to Narita with my family and get off this island. Once that puppy explodes... No plane will be taking off either.

Meanwhile - life is same ol' same ol' with the ocacasional PTSD from 3/11 attacks.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It reminds me of Mt St Helen in USA in 1980: people didn't believe it would erupt. Then chaos happened.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

That's why we moved to Melbourne.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Can't they remove the pressure inside the volcano?

yeah....there is a tap just around the back. We just have to turn it on for an hour or so and that will do the trick.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In February, some new craters were spotted by aerial photography.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"If Mount Fuji erupts, it could cause 2.5 trillion yen of damage"

Fill it with concrete already!

0 ( +4 / -4 )

"Erupt" meaning BOOM! or meaning sputtering lava?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Awhile before the 11/3/11 big one, one of the TV networks did this really scary documentary about what scientists say could actually happen if Fuji were to have a major eruption, complete with that really scary music and graphics before and after every commercial break that Japanese TV channels always love. I swear it was really an eye-opener and the facts noted really rang true so they really didn't need the scary music to freak me right out! Basically, it's all about wind direction. In the event of a major eruption, if the wind was blowing the speed and direction that it usually does, -right towards Tokyo, the most populated areas of the Kanto plain would have tons of ash, razor sharp microscopic glass-like particles, that shred the inside of your lungs, dumped on it, so that literally millions would die, since the same ash particles would also clog all machinery so all traffic (trains,planes and cars) attempting to flee the ensuing chaos would be stopped cold, along with all electricity and communications. Wow, why am I still not a flyjin? I really don't know. Sweet dreams all!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

For the doubter who thumbed down my comment about the newly discovered craters, here are thelinks:

http://mobile.volcanodiscovery.com/fuji/news/5496/Mt-Fuji-volcano-Japan-signs-of-volcanic-unrest-reported.html

http://news.livedoor.com/lite/article_detail/6274468/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There are actually two extinct volcanoes under Mt. Fuji. (Their names are Komitake and Kofuji or Old Fuji.) The process that makes the point where the Izu Peninsula meets Honshu a geological hot spot has been ongoing for eons. What's most worrisome, I suppose, is that the 1707 eruption (from the Hoei crater on the eastern slope) was the largest eruption of Fuji recorded in history. So basically, anything goes. The 1707 eruption caused rice crops to fail, resulting in widespread famine. At least in those days they didn't need to worry about the Tomei Expressway, Shinkansen and local airports being shut down.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If Mount Aso, down here in Kyushu, decides to blow suddenly, it'll be sayonara for the whole population (14 million). : (

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Dont care about how much it will cost. Life is priceless. Whats the estimated radius of the blast? Tell me the danger zone.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

No need to worry. Japanese volcanoes are the safest in the world, nothing can ever go wrong with them. Please go back to being productive society members. :D

0 ( +1 / -1 )

FYI, before you "poo poo" the idea of a Mt. Fuji eruption:

Mt. Fuji is about 3000 feet taller than Mt. St. Helens before it blew in 1980. That eruption reduced St. Helen's height from 9,677 feet to 8,365 ft.

As a bonus, Mt. Fuji is about 7 times closer to Tokyo than St Helens was from my home town(at the time) in Spokane, Washington. We got over half a foot of ash on the ground(which lasted for weeks), it fell like thick snow, blacking out the sun for hours...

If Mt Fuji's eruption is anything like Mt. St. Helens, and the wind is blowing towards us, then no doubt about it: we will be in a WORLD OF HURT!

There's lots of cool information about the St. Helens eruption, here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/fs036-00/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@mlg4035

The big problem is not actually if Fuji will blow. That is inevitable. The problem is where Fuji is located. It's on a fault line that can start one of the worst chain reaction in history effecting at least four continents directly.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There are aliens living in that mountain, I'm telling you!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Can't they remove the pressure inside the volcano?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Like to old Gonzilla movies, " Oh, there goes Tokyo." Well at least that is what the English sub titles said.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Tectonic shifts triggered by last year’s huge 9.0 magnitude undersea quake have left the chamber under 16 times the minimum pressure at which an eruption can occur, researchers said.

Hmm, I can't figure out what this means --the chamber under 16 times or the chamber under comma 16 times more---

Its pretty amazing that they can tell you the pressure of something they would have had difficulty measuring 300 years ago but they can't tell you who committed a terrible public crime that happened yesterday.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Trying to predict what nature will doing to is like playing the lottery. One in 10000000 times someone gets it right.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Can Superman save us ? I want to see boulders (the size of a car) flying through the air.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Damn... is this creaky in the forecast? A blown volcano? in this case Mt Fuji? If that really happens, it doesn't matter where we evacuate to. Just getting out of Tokyo would be an impossibility. There aren't enough passage ways to get everybody out in time. Where would we go to that's safe? If we go north, the aftermath of the Tohoku disaster still lingers. If we go south the ash and possible road infrastructure would be taken out with the blast or weight of the ash and rocks. There is no where to run to. We are all sitting ducks.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

If you live here in the Metropolitan Tokyo Area, so Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Yamanashi and yes, TOKYO, kiss your ass good bye! Sayonara if Fuji san blows up!

-12 ( +1 / -13 )

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