A short visit to Mt. Aso

---

Our next destination was Kumamoto which is about a four hours train trip from Hiroshima. Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto-ken, located on the island of Kyushu and home to a great traditional Japanese fortified castle. Unfortunately we did not have much time to explore Kumamoto as our prime destination was Mt. Aso, about 1 hour by train from Kumamoto. As I am studying geology in my spare time and always been fascinated by volcanoes, this was a fantastic opportunity to see volcanic activities in action!

Kyushu is dominated by volcanic activities with several volcanoes and volcano complexes and is home of one of the world's greatest active caldera volcano, Mt. Aso, created by four big eruptions 90000-300000 years ago. The dimensions of the volcano complex is fantastic - the caldera is so large (24 km across) which makes it difficult to realise the exact location of the summit. At present there is only one active cone, Naka-dara which is easily accessible for tourists. A few years ago there were several eruptions, some of them with fatal consequences so to protect the many tourists, there have been built shelters in the area.

Some of the facts in this blog are from this very interesting website: http://www.volcano.si.edu/

---