Daily Journal

Day 3 | July 20, 2005

Sampling at Nii-jima

Most of the volcanic deposits on the island of Niijima have resulted from a process called water-magma interaction. When this occurred here about 1000 years ago, hot magma, rising from deep within the Earth, encountered sea-water on its path towards the surface. The water turned instantly into steam. The magma-steam mixture produced extremely violent explosions and the layered rocks on Wakagou beach.

After sampling we had lunch and a swim at beautiful Habushiura beach.

The target for the afternoon was a 25 m deep hot well. Sixty-two degree centigrade hot water is pumped to the surface and distributed to various hot pools on the island. We sampled the water and the gases directly from the well.

At the end of the afternoon we relaxed Japanese style in Mamashita hot springs, fed by the well that we had just sampled.