Mount Oakan

Mount Oakan
雄阿寒岳
View from the Siberian Dwarf Pine zone on Mount Oakan, looking toward Mount Meakan. (July 2008)
Elevation	1,370.4 m (4,496 ft)
Listing	List of mountains and hills of Japan by height
Location
Location	Hokkaidō, Japan
Range	Akan Volcanic Complex
Coordinates	43°27′06″N 144°09′53″E / 43.45167°N 144.16472°E / 43.45167; 144.16472Coordinates: 43°27′06″N 144°09′53″E / 43.45167°N 144.16472°E / 43.45167; 144.16472
Topo map	Geographical Survey Institute 25000:1 雄阿寒岳 50000:1 阿寒湖
Geology
Type	shield volcano and parasitic lava dome
Age of rock	Late Pleistocene-Holocene
Volcanic arc/belt	Kuril arc

Lake Akan and Mount Oakan

Mount Oakan (雄阿寒岳, Oakan-dake) is a shield volcano located in Akan National Park in Hokkaidō, Japan.

Geography and geology

Mount Oakan sits in the Akan caldera northeast of Lake Akan. The volcano rises some 900 metres (3,000 ft) above the surrounding terrain. The top of the volcano is 1,370 metres (4,490 ft) above sea level. The volcanic cone is some 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) in diameter. There are three explosion craters at the summit. At Kitanakahara (北中腹) at about 800 metres (2,600 ft), there is a fumarole.^[1] The volcano is made mostly from non-alkalai mafic volcanic rock. The main rock type is andesite and dacite.

History

Mount Oakan emerged in the Late Pleistocene dropping pumice on Minamishikata. After that, continuous lava flows formed the bulk of the volcano. In the final stages of its life, a parasitic volcano formed a lava dome at the summit.^[1]

According to its name and local legend, Mount Oakan is the male counterpart to Mount Meakan on the other side of Lake Akan. ^[2]

References

• Geographical Survey Institute
• Akan, Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
• OEAKAN-DAKE, Quaternary Volcanoes of Japan, Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, 2006
• Hokkaido, Seamless Digital Geological Map of Japan, Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, 2007.

Notes