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The Phreatic Eruption of Mt. Ontake Volcano in 2014

Edited by: Koshun Yamaoka, Steve Ingebritsen, Teruki Oikawa, Takeshi Hashimoto, Nobuo Geshi

A phreatic eruption occurred at the summit of Mount Ontake on September 27, 2014, killing more than 50 climbers who were enjoying the excellent autumn weather with colored leaves. The eruption process was recorded with seismic and geodetic observations, and there are many eyewitnesses who survived the eruption. This available data provides us a unique opportunity to understand the volcanic process involved in the phreatic eruption and can help to reduce the risk associated with future phreatic eruptions. This special issue pursues a multidisciplinary approach to assessing the eruption of the Ontake volcano, combining geophysical, geological, geochemical and other methods.

Publication started: 16 July 2015
Publication finished: 10 November 2016

  2. Mount Ontake erupted at 11:52 am on September 27, 2014, which generated pyroclastic density currents, ballistic projectiles, ash falls, and a small-scale lahar that spouted directly from craters formed by the ...

    Authors: Hisashi Sasaki, Tatsuro Chiba, Hiroshi Kishimoto and Shino Naruke
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:141
    Content type: Letter Published on:

  3. The total mass discharged by the phreatic eruption of Ontake Volcano, central Japan, on September 27, 2014, was estimated using several methods. The estimated discharged mass was 1.2 × 106 t (segment integration ...

    Authors: Shinji Takarada, Teruki Oikawa, Ryuta Furukawa, Hideo Hoshizumi, Jun’ichi Itoh, Nobuo Geshi and Isoji Miyagi
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:138
    Content type: Full Paper Published on:

  6. The 2014 Mount Ontake eruption started just before noon on September 27, 2014. It killed 58 people, and five are still missing (as of January 1, 2016). The casualties were mainly caused by the impact of ballis...

    Authors: Kae Tsunematsu, Yasuhiro Ishimine, Takayuki Kaneko, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Toshitsugu Fujii and Koshun Yamaoka
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:88
    Content type: Full paper Published on:

  7. The phreatic eruption at Ontake volcano on 27 September 2014, which caused the worst volcanic disaster in the past half-century in Japan, was reconstructed based on observations of the proximal pyroclastic den...

    Authors: Fukashi Maeno, Setsuya Nakada, Teruki Oikawa, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Jiro Komori, Yoshihiro Ishizuka, Yoshihiro Takeshita, Taketo Shimano, Takayuki Kaneko and Masashi Nagai
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:82
    Content type: Full Paper Published on:

  8. A phreatic eruption at Mount Ontake (3067 m) on September 27, 2014, led to 64 casualties, including missing people. In this paper, we clarify the eruption sequence of the 2014 eruption from recorded images (ph...

    Authors: Teruki Oikawa, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Setsuya Nakada, Fukashi Maeno, Jiro Komori, Taketo Shimano, Yoshihiro Takeshita, Yoshihiro Ishizuka and Yasuhiro Ishimine
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:79
    Content type: Full paper Published on:

  11. The volcanic ash of the eruption on September 27, 2014 at Ontake volcano consists mostly of altered rock fragments. The ash contains partly altered volcanic rock fragments consisting of primary igneous mineral...

    Authors: Yusuke Minami, Takumi Imura, Shintaro Hayashi and Tsukasa Ohba
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:67
    Content type: Letter Published on:

  13. A phreatic eruption of Mt. Ontake, Japan, started abruptly on September 27, 2014, and caused the worst volcanic calamity in recent 70 years in Japan. We conducted volcanic plume surveys using an electric multi...

    Authors: Toshiya Mori, Takeshi Hashimoto, Akihiko Terada, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Ryunosuke Kazahaya, Hiroshi Shinohara and Ryo Tanaka
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:49
    Content type: Full paper Published on:

  14. Volcanic activity generally causes crustal deformation, which sometimes induces groundwater changes, and both of these phenomena are sometimes detected before volcanic eruptions. Therefore, investigations of c...

    Authors: Naoji Koizumi, Tsutomu Sato, Yuichi Kitagawa and Tadafumi Ochi
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:48
    Content type: Letter Published on:

  16. Preparatory activity preceding the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake volcano was estimated from vertical deformation detected using a precise leveling survey. Notable uplift (2006–2009) and subsidence (2009–2014) ...

    Authors: Masayuki Murase, Fumiaki Kimata, Yoshiko Yamanaka, Shinichiro Horikawa, Kenjiro Matsuhiro, Takeshi Matsushima, Hitoshi Mori, Takahiro Ohkura, Shin Yoshikawa, Rikio Miyajima, Hiroyuki Inoue, Taketoshi Mishima, Tadaomi Sonoda, Kazunari Uchida, Keigo Yamamoto and Harushisa Nakamichi
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:9
    Content type: Full paper Published on:

  17. On 27 September 2014, Ontake volcano, in central Japan, suddenly erupted without precursory activity. We estimated and tracked the source locations of volcanic tremor associated with the eruption at high tempo...

    Authors: Masashi Ogiso, Hirotoshi Matsubayashi and Tetsuya Yamamoto
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2015 67:206
    Content type: Full paper Published on:

  18. The phreatic eruption of Mt. Ontake in 2014 was preceded for 25 s by a very long period (VLP) seismic event recorded at one broadband and three short-period seismic stations located within 5000 m of the summit...

    Authors: Yuta Maeda, Aitaro Kato, Toshiko Terakawa, Yoshiko Yamanaka, Shinichiro Horikawa, Kenjiro Matsuhiro and Takashi Okuda
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2015 67:187
    Content type: Letter Published on:

  19. We analyzed seismicity linked to the 2014 phreatic eruption of Mount Ontake, Japan, on 27 September 2014. We first relocated shallow volcano tectonic (VT) earthquakes and long-period (LP) events from August to...

    Authors: Aitaro Kato, Toshiko Terakawa, Yoshiko Yamanaka, Yuta Maeda, Shinichiro Horikawa, Kenjiro Matsuhiro and Takashi Okuda
    Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2015 67:111
    Content type: Frontier Letter Published on:

    The Erratum to this article has been published in Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:42