Akita University Graduate School of International Resource Science Associate Professor Stephen Obrochta and The University of Tokyo Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute Professor Yusuke Yokoyama’s research group analyzed a four-meter long, continuous subsurface column of sediment obtained from Lake Motosu (one of the Fuji Five Lakes) during the international research project “QuakeRecNankai” (A cooperative study between Ghent University, The University of Tokyo and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology). The result is a reconstruction of the eruptive history of Mt. Fuji based on the ash layers deposited in Lake Motosu over the past 8,000 years that reveals the possible existence of previously unknown eruptions, provides better estimates of the timing of eruptions, and indicates that a wider area was affected by eruptions that previously thought. The societal impacts of a Mt. Fuji eruption are feared to be quite severe. The results of this study have implications for prediction of future eruptions and disaster mitigation.
