The Japanese Archipelago
is full of stunning and unique landscapes.
But what truly is remarkable is the amazing variety of them.
How is it possible that Japan could have such
a wide diversity of beautiful vistas?
It's all because the Japanese islands
occupy a very unique location on the planet
where the Earth is always in motion.
At 12,388 feet, Mount Fuji is the tallest peak in Japan.
It is a solitary peak.
It soars all alone, not a part of any mountain range.
The reason why Mount Fuji stands so tall
in majestic solitude can be found deep under the ground.
The Japanese Archipelago lies at the junction
of four major tectonic plates.
The oceanic plates that form the sea floor
are constantly moving at a very slow rate.
Just beneath Mount Fuji, an oceanic plate
wedges in between two continental plates.
Here, the oceanic plate tips down
and slides beneath the continental plates
at a relatively shallow depth.
The subduction of these plates are the cause
of frequent and violent volcanic activity in this region.
A build up of lava from numerous eruptions
created the soaring peak, Mount Fuji.
The Izu Peninsula is located south of Mount Fuji.
Because of its proximity to the plate boundaries,
the Izu Peninsula is also a hotbed of volcanic activity.
Mount Omuro is one of many volcanoes in Izu.
It was created about 4,000 years ago
by a volcanic eruption.
The hollow crater is now a favorite tourist destination.
Dogashima, a scenic spot located on the coast
of western Izu, is famous for its white cliffs.
The white cliffs are made from volcanic ash.
Repeated eruptions deposited volcanic ash
on the ocean floor that eventually hardened into rocks.
The striped pattern on the rocks' surface
shows how the cliffs were formed
by the accumulation of small amounts of ash
resulting from each volcanic eruption.
From the Izu peninsula, a string of volcanic islands
stretches southward, forming the Izu Islands.
Because the Pacific Plate is subducting
beneath the Philippine Sea Plate,
there is heavy volcanic activity along their boundary.
622 miles to the south of Honshu,
the main island of Japan, the birth of a new volcanic island
has been astounding the world.
It is Nishinoshima.
With lava continuously flowing for more than two years,
the island has grown to over one and a quarter mile
in diameter.
This has given scientists a very rare opportunity
to study a rapidly growing island.
In the summer of 2015, a ship set sail for Nishinoshima
to conduct a thorough survey of the island.
Since a violent eruption could occur at any moment,
the area two and a half miles in diameter
around the island is off limits,
so remote controlled helicopters
were dispatched from the ship to conduct the observations.
An ultra high definition 4K camera was used
to take close up shots of the island from every direction.
Fluffy white clouds trail across the horizon.
Nishinoshima lies just ahead of the clouds.
The volcanic fumes rising from the crater
appear brownish from the volcanic ash,
but as water droplets form around the dust
and the volcanic ash, it becomes the white clouds
that drift from the island.
Seven minutes after take off,
the newly created island looms just ahead.
Steam rises where the hot lava flows into the sea.
The helicopter heads inlet to give
the scientists a closer look.
The volcano looks exactly like Izu's Mount Omuro.
The birth of the Japanese islands
is believed to have started with this same kind
of eruption of under sea volcanoes.
To see the volcano on Nishinoshima
is actually witnessing the spectacular
very first stage of the creation of land.
It's almost 985 feet to the crater.
The operators will attempt to get
an extremely close up shot of the volcanic activity.
Lava rocks of different shapes
are being ejected into the air.
Magma, once viscous, cools and solidifies into solids
in the air as it is being scattered by the eruption.
An accumulation of these lava rocks have created
this hill almost 500 feet tall.
The lava can be observed even flowing
out of an opening at the foot of the volcano.
When the area is shaded by the fume shadow,
it can be seen glowing faintly red.
A red glow is now visible in the cracks.
The molten lava is flowing at 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit.
The surface has cooled and solidified into a black mass.
The black ribbon of lava keeps flowing downhill.
When the image is fast forwarded,
you can see that it's moving very slowly.
In just a month, the lava has extended
the coast line 560 feet into the sea.
Moving so slowly, it's almost too subtle
for the eye to see.
The lava is steadily making Nishinoshima bigger every day.
When the sun goes down, Nishinoshima is revealed
in an even more spectacular way.
The helicopter takes off for a night flight.
The super sensitive 4K camera has made it possible
to capture the stunning vistas of the night.
This is the incandescent glow of the lava
that was obscured by the sun during the day.
The glow of the lava disappears halfway down the mountain,
where it reaches the sea.
The lava has burrowed underground
and continues to flow through numerous tunnels.
As it nears the coast, the lava appears again,
above ground, and then disappears once again
as it flows into the sea.
Nishinoshima demonstrates the overwhelming power
of the moving earth.
The Philippine Sea Plate sinks deep beneath the ground
at the southern end of the Japanese Archipelago.
This movement has created a strange vista
along the Shikoku coastline.
At Cape Muroto, you can see formations
of huge sheets of rocks standing vertically,
side by side with each other.
These rocks were formed on the sea floor
at a depth of 13,000 feet where plate subduction occurs.
This is what a cross section looks like.
The Philippine Sea Plate, with mud and sand
deposited underneath the Eurasian Plate,
and the sedimentary body is scraped off
from the Philippine Sea Plate.
Since it is constantly pushed from behind,
the pressure solidifies the sediment into rocks,
which are then thrust upward,
and finally breaks through the surface to become land.
At Cape Muroto, new land is being created still today
as the rocks are being thrust up from the ocean depth.
The rocks continue to rise at a rate
of almost seven feet every 1,000 years.
The thrusting of rocks occurring in such
a rapid rate is very rare in the world.
In Japan, there are many other places
where land has been created by rocks
thrust up from the ocean floor.
Countless rocks dot a grassy plateau.
This is Akiyoshidai.
This vista was also created by rocks
being thrust upward from the ocean floor.
You can even find coral fossils on the ground here.
300 million years ago, the rocks here formed
large coral reefs nurtured by a warm tropical sea.
The coral reefs eventually turned into limestone bedrock
and was carried, then pushed up
by tectonic plate movement to become land.
Limestones are easily dissolved by rain.
This characteristic has created a strange vista
of many sinkholes and rock-dotted landscapes.
Water also dissolved underground limestone
and created Akiyoshido Cavern,
one of the largest limestone caves in Japan.
Stalactites hang from the ceiling like icicles.
The stalactites were formed when limestone,
dissolved by water, dripped from the ceiling
and solidified once again.
This landscape was also created by limestone
dissolving in water and then solidifying as it flowed.
The complex water flow created this unusual formation.
The Akiyoshido Cavern is almost 20,000 feet deep.
It is earth in motion that created
this breathtaking place out of a huge coral reef
that once inhabited a tropical sea.
Violent volcanic eruptions are a frequent occurrence
in the Japanese islands, sitting atop
the juncture of four plates.
90,000 years ago, there was a huge eruption
at Kumamoto's Mount Aso, and a large amount of debris
covered northern Kyushu.
The material ejected from the volcano then cooled
and solidified into rocks 330 feet thick.
The flow of water carved a deep path in the volcanic rocks
to create breathtaking Takachiho Gorge.
Originally, this place was a barren land
covered only with rocks from the volcano.
Over a long period of time, it became cloaked in green
and transformed into a place of scenic beauty.
Japan has more than 100 volcanoes.
Much of the country has undergone
this kind of dramatic transfiguration
to become what it is today.
On Nishinoshima, a newly emerging island,
the ancient process that transformed a land of fire
into a green luscious landscape
is about to be recreated here.
Above the steaming lava, there is life.
A bird flies by.
And more birds.
In fact, there was an old Nishinoshima right next
to the new Nishinoshima that has begun to erupt.
It was a bird's paradise, where over 2,000 birds
made their home.
But the island was overrun by lava
and only a small portion of it remained.
On the old portion of Nishinoshima
there are many birds in flight.
The brown nesting birds are Gannets.
Several hundred birds have survived in this environment.
The scientists left a camera that can capture
360 degree panorama to observe the birds.
Black lava, 30 feet thick, is encroaching on their habitat.
But the birds have been laying their eggs
and rearing their young here.
The fact that so many birds survived
will have a large impact on the future of Nishinoshima.
Sometimes, seeds attach to the birds' feathers.
The birds have expanded their habitat
to include the newly formed lava rocks.
By dropping the seeds there, the birds will contribute
to the greening of the island.
The birds help in other ways to transform
this barren land into green landscape.
The top of the black lava is covered in a white substance,
bird droppings, that will act as fertilizer for plants.
The heartiness of the birds' population
will dramatically change the appearance of Nishinoshima
to create yet another amazing vista in the future.
Japan is unlike any country on the planet
because of its volcanic heritage
and its unique location, situated where
four tectonic plates collide.
Through Japan's violent and unpredictable evolution,
its islands and lands created not only
many stunning and unique vistas
but a way for us to understand their creation
and the origin of land.