Mount Bandai

Mount Bandai is a stratovolcano in Fukushima Prefecture in northern Japan, reaching about 1,816 meters, long nicknamed "Aizu-Fuji" for its once-symmetrical cone resembling a smaller Mount Fuji as seen from the town of Aizu-Wakamatsu. That symmetry was destroyed on July 15, 1888, when a large phreatic (steam-driven) eruption blew out the volcano's northern flank in a massive debris avalanche, killing an estimated 477 people in nearby villages, one of the deadliest volcanic disasters in Japan's modern history, and leaving the mountain with the distinctive horseshoe-shaped collapse scar and rough, hummocky north face still visible today. The landslide debris dammed several local rivers and streams, creating the cluster of scenic lakes and marshes now known as the Goshikinuma, or "Five-Colored Lakes," whose varying mineral content gives each pond a different hue, today a major feature of Bandai-Asahi National Park. Built from andesitic lava consistent with the wider Tohoku volcanic arc, Bandai has shown no major eruptive activity since 1888 and is classified as an active but currently quiet volcano. This entity documents Mount Bandai specifically as a geological formation, a Fukushima stratovolcano whose 1888 collapse eruption killed 477 people and created the Goshikinuma lakes.