North Alps, South Alps, The Alps?

[cal 6]

Just looking at that other thread and realising I didn't know this - where are the boundaries of the Alps in Japan?

[damian 0]

It is actually quite hard to find a good English map on the internet of the Japanese mountain ranges, with main peaks and town marked. I went to wikipee and it uncharacteristically not very helpful.

[mattlucas 0]

North Alps are bordered on the west by Toyama and Gifu. On the East by Niigata and Nagano

As far south as Route 158 (Joins Gifu Takayama with Nagano Matsumoto) and as far north as the Ocean I guess

 

Central Alps I'm not so sure as I've never been but I think they run the southern border of Nagano and Yamanashi

 

I don't know this one so much as well because only went there twice and don't remember all the borders.

South Alps northern boubery starts where Nagano, Yamanashi and Shizuoka meet. And from there go south bordered by Shizuoka and Yamanashi

[tsondaboy 0]

The Southern Alps are really easy to define. It is the wedge like area bounded by the 152,20,52,362 National roads. To the north they start from the Lake Suwa area and to the South they end northern of Sizuoka City.

http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=35%2F39%2F....x=316&CE.y=241

The map is centered to Kita-dake at 3193 m, the second highest pick in Japan after mt. Fuji.

[giggsy 0]

Is Nozawa actually in the Alps or outside of that official area?

[tsondaboy 0]

no Nozawa is not in the Alps.

[2pints-mate 0]

Really? I didn't know that. I suppose that means Shiga Kogen ain't either, right?

[tsondaboy 0]

Siga Kogen, Nozawa, Yuzawa etc. are mountains that were formed after the Japanese islands started approaching the Asian continent.

If you want some nerdy geological definition, they are mountains inside the Northern Fossa Magna sedimentary units that were formed during the closing of the Japanese sea in Miocene.

[damian 0]

Can someone plese post a simple map showing

 

a. Japan

b. a rough outline encompasing the northern alps

c. a few major towns (or resorts) in the arupus area for points of reference.

[tsondaboy 0]

This is a rough sketch of the area. Sorry but I didn’t have much time to add more details.

 

 

[soubriquet 0]

Thanks for that, tsondaboy.

 

Here's a tectonic map, which gives some geological context.

 

Tectonic map of Japan. Thin red lines denote active faults. Grey lines denote plate boundaries and major tectonic lines. Dashed grey line denotes a possible plate boundary between the Eurasian(or Amurian) and the Okhotsk(or North American) plates. Thick grey line indicates location of the Niigata-Kobe Tectonic Zone (NKTZ). PAC: Pacific plate, PHS; Philippine Sea plate, EUR: Eurasian plate, AMR; Amurian plate, OHK: Okhotsk plate, NAM: North American plate, ISTL: Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line, MTL: Median Tectonic Line.

 

 

Quote:

"1. The geomorphological setting (selected paragraphs from Onda et al, 2001)

 

a) The Japanese Alps

 

The Japanese Alps, the highest non-volcanic ranges in Japan, consist of three separate ranges called the Northern, Central, and Southern Japanese Alps (hereafter they are referred to as NJA, CJA, and SJA). The length of each range is about 80 to 130 km, and the width is about 30 to 50 km. Their summit altitudes are about 3,000 m. The three ranges are underlain mostly by rocks of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods. CJA and the northern half of NJA are characterized by granite rocks; whereas, SJA and the southern half of NJA are characterized by sedimentary rocks. The higher parts of the mountains were glaciated during the Last Glacial age. The extent of glaciers was greater during Isotope Stage 4 than during Isotope Stage 2, reflecting greater snowfall in Stage 4. Some small cirque glaciers also advanced during the Younger Dryas period. The orographic snowline at Stage 2 was located around 2,600 m in most of the mountains. However, the northwestern mountains tended to have lower snowline altitudes, reflecting greater snowfall due to the moisture supply from the Japan Sea. Most cirques occur on the eastern side of the mountains, reflecting snow transportation over the ridge by strong westerly winds.

 

The Central Japanese Alps

 

CJA is characterized by low-angle thrust faults with high slip rates. The range began to uplift around 0.5 Ma, indicating that the average uplift rate of the mountains is at least 4 mm/yr. The horizontal slip rate of the main fault below the range is even greater, resulting in more than 4-km horizontal shortening between the range and the Ina Valley at the eastern foot of the range. Late Quaternary alluvial-fan surfaces in the Ina Valley have been displaced by the faults. The rapid uplift of fan toes induced by the thrust faults led to wide exposure of deeply incised Pleistocene surfaces in the Ina Valley, especially those formed during Isotope Stage 4. In contrast, alluvial-fan surfaces formed in the Pleistocene are often covered with Holocene gravel at the foot of NJA and SJA because of abundant postglacial sediment supply.

 

c) The Southern Japanese Alps

 

SJA has been uplifting since the early Quaternary due to tectonic processes. These examples show that the period of orogeny differs even among adjacent mountains. Most of the Japanese Islands have been subjected to compressive stress resulted from the subduction of the Pacific Plate along the Japan Trench, the Sagami Trough and the Nankai Trough."

[damian 0]

Thanks for the maps. They educated me more than any other that I could find. I think I need to buy a topo map of honshu, just to get a feel for what the topography is like. Being a beginner and at the same time non-observant resort rider in Japan, I had no idea that Hakuba was that far west and nor did I know that the Northern Alps covered such a little area. I just caught the shinkansen and the bought a lift ticket.

 

One of the misleading (not negatively) aspects of Honshu is that it is so hilly and so snowy that in ignorance, one gets the impression that the Alps cover the greater part of Honshu. Where as in fact the bigger peaks are quite concentrated and the greater part of Honshu supports a good snow reputation not through volumes of high mountains but through volumes of snow?

 

So what are the mountains just above the word 'vilage'? At about 139, 37.

 

Having the Southern Alps directly west of Tokyo was also an education for me. Relative to the northern, I can see why they are called southern. What resorts are in that area?

 

Why is Fuji represented with a nipple?

 

Here is a picture of an excinct volcano in Honshu that I took with a disposable camera from a plane.

[mattlucas 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by le spud:
Having the Southern Alps directly west of Tokyo was also an education for me. Relative to the northern, I can see why they are called southern. What resorts are in that area?

South Alps are pretty remote. You have to bus in to most trailheads and the ride is hairy in places. They also don't receive very much snow as they are in the rain shadow

[tsondaboy 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by le spud:
Why is Fuji represented with a nipple?

Because I think Fuji is gay.

Seriously now, I plotted the map my self so I chose the symbols arbitrarily.
Since Fuji is a volcano and volcanoes have a rim rather than a pick, I thought I should symbolize it with a ring.

The mountains above the word “village” are Siga Kogen, Nozawa, Yuzawa etc, that I mention in the previous posts.

In the Southern Alps area the biggest resort is Fujimi Panorama.　It is somewere between Kofu and Matsumoto. I think there are some more small ones in the area but I am not sure.

Isn`t that Fuji in the pick?

[damian 0]

Nope, not Fuji in the pic. It is somewhere in Japan on the mid winter flight path from Narita to Paris.

 

SJ needs a nice map showing mountain ranges in relief, main roads, towns and resorts.

[yoroshiku onegai shimasu 2]

That mountain in the pic Asama maybe?

[tsondaboy 0]

No, definetly not Asama because Asama has 2 rims one inside the other.

[2pints-mate 0]

Cool looking mountain that.

 

There was a programme on bbc the other day actually called Journeys Into The Ring of Fire. 1 episode was on Japan, had this geologist guy talking about the volcanoes, earthquakes and how he reckons they have shaped the culture of Japan. Quite interesting watch it was.

[scoobydoo 0]

Asama is the one that was spewing dust and a bit more a few years ago wasnt it. Looks like its steaming on that as well.

[Fattwins 0]

karizawa right thats where it is.

in this heat we got snow on the peaks of hakuba down to 2000 meters

[Hokkaidough 4]

Asama is just to the west of Karuizawa, to the south of Manza if I am not mistaken.

 

Very interesting shape.

[muikabochi 208]

It had quite a bit of activity a few months before the Chuetsu earthquake in 04, I remember them talking about some possible connection.

[Matt 0]

Looks like Nantai san near Nikko. The lake in the background is Chusenjiko I think...

[King Of Nails IV 0]

I think you might be right there. That means that Gunma is in the background.