The Inhabited Volcanic Island of Japan

 Aogashima, The Inhabited Volcanic 

Island of Japan

Aogashima is a tropical volcanic island in the Philippine Sea, administered by Tokyo despite being located approximately 358 kilometres (222 mi) south of Tokyo. It is the southernmost and most isolated inhabited island of the Izu archipelago.

Aogashima is a volcanic island 3.5 km in length with a maximum width of 2.5 km, formed by the overlapping remnants of at least four submarine calderas. The island is surrounded by very steep rugged cliffs of layered volcanic deposits. The southern coast also rises to a sharp ridge forming one edge of a caldera named Ikenosawa with a diameter of 1.5 km. The caldera dominates the island, with one point on its southern ridge, Otonbu with a height of 423 metres (1,388 ft), as the island’s highest point. The caldera is occupied by a secondary cone named Maruyama.

Origins Shrouded in Mystery

How people first ended up on the island is largely considered a mystery. The island’s own legend has it that the island was once forbidden to women because it was believed that man and women living together on the island would anger the gods. The first written records of the island appear around the 15th century and many of them are of shipwrecks so there’s a strong possibility that sailors may have taken refuge on the island and eventually made it their home.