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Geological Formations

Mount Fuji

Volcanic Formations

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Mount Fuji stands on the Japanese island of Honshu, straddling Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures about 100 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, and at 3,776.24 meters is the highest mountain in Japan. It is an active stratovolcano built up through four distinct volcanic phases: the oldest, Sen-komitake, is an andesite layer; the Komitake Fuji basalt layer formed several hundred thousand years ago; "Old Fuji" developed around 100,000 years ago; and "New Fuji," which gives the mountain its present form, emerged roughly 10,000 years ago. The volcano sits at a triple junction where three tectonic plates meet, with the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the region and driving its volcanism. Ten eruptions are documented in reliable historical records dating back to the year 781, and its most recent eruption, the Hoei eruption, ran from 1707 to 1708. This entity documents Mount Fuji specifically as a geological formation, an active stratovolcano built in four phases at a triple tectonic plate junction.

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