6世紀における榛名火山の2回の噴火とその災害

抄録

Haruna volcano, situated in the central part of Japan, erupted twice in the 6th century, from Futatsu-dake crater. The first eruption, which occurred in the early part of the 6th century, was set set off by a low-temperature phreatomagmatic eruption. The initially ejected very fine ash accumulated as accretionary lapilli and muddy rainfalls. Later, the eruption changed to hot pyroclastic flow effusions, which contained many essential lithics. These pyroclastic flow effusions included small-scale phreatic eruptions. The ash had formed ash clouds that then accumulated on each pyroclastic flow deposit. This tephra sequence was named the Haruna-Shibukawa tephra formation(Hr-S).
These pyroclastic flow encroached on an older village, Nakasuji, situated on the eastern flank of Haruna volcano. The pyroclastic flow (S-5) burned and destroyed many houses. Because its deposit was very thinly laminated, it took the form of a hot pyroclastic surge, which spread over the eastern side of Haruna volcano, causing widespread damage there before changing to mud flows and floods and damaging rice fields in the area.
The second eruption, which occurred in the middle or later part of the 6th century, is characterized by plinian eruptions and pyroclastic flow effusions. This tephra sequence was named the Haruna-lkaho tephra formation (Hr-I). The pumice ejected in the plinian eruptions was deposited, in a layer about 3cm thick, on Soma city, 200km from the vent.
An older village, Kuroimine, situated about 10km from the vent, was buried by a layer of pumice about 200cm thick. Because pumice oxidized by the flames of burning houses is observed from the bottom to near the top of the pumice fall deposit, we can confirm that the greater part of the pumice accumulated during a period of hours. A house was crushed by the coarser part of the pumice fall deposit (1-6). The pyroclastic flows, which caused columns to collapse, moved and accumulated along the valleys before changing into mud flows and floods. They also caused heavy damage to rice fields and farms.
In Gunma Prefecture, it may well be that villages, rice fields, and farms damaged by volcanic eruptions in the same way as Nakasuji village and Kuroimine village were damaged will be discovered. The data in relation to past volcanic hazards, obtained by joint research between archaeology and volcanology, will contribute to predicting volcanic disasters.