What you can see on the Ōshima cams
Izu Ōshima is a caldera island, and the view that matters is the wide bowl at its top, with Miharayama, the central cone, standing on the floor. The cone has produced nearly all the island's eruptions since the seventh century, so any change above it is worth watching. Mornings are usually the clearest.
Across the caldera towards the Mihara cone
Set on the north-west rim of Izu Ōshima's caldera, this camera looks across the caldera towards Miharayama, the central cone. Shrubs and low trees fill the foreground, and beyond them the far side runs across the frame as a dark, uneven ridge, with several bumps along its top and a small structure on the skyline. In the morning the camera looks into the light, so the cone shows mostly as a silhouette under a bright sky.
Miharayama has produced nearly all the island's eruptions since the seventh century. In 1986 fissures on the caldera floor threw lava fountains high into the air and the whole island was evacuated; the last eruption was in 1990.
The night the lava fountains rose
On 21 November 1986 fissures opened on the caldera floor and threw lava fountains up to 1,600 m into the air, visible from the mainland. Flows headed towards Motomachi, the main town, and within a day the entire population of about 12,000 was evacuated by ferry and naval ship. Nobody died, and most returned a month later. The scars are still obvious from the rim. Explosive episodes of that scale have recurred here every century or so for thousands of years, between quieter basaltic phases; the last eruption was in 1990.
When to watch Ōshima
Mornings are clearest. Camellias bloom from late January to March, when the slopes below the caldera turn red and the island holds its camellia festival. Japan is nine hours ahead of UTC.
Around Izu Ōshima
The Ura-sabaku, the «back desert» on the eastern side, is a plain of black ash with almost no vegetation, the only place in Japan officially mapped as a desert. Motomachi has hot springs with a view back towards the Izu Peninsula.
Visiting Izu Ōshima
Ferries leave from Tokyo's Takeshiba pier and from Atami. A road reaches the caldera rim, and a path crosses the floor to the crater, closed whenever the alert level rises.
