Japan is an island nation in East Asia, located in the Pacific Ocean. Because of Japan's unique physical geography, it suffers from many difficulties caused naturally. Natural disasters can be caused which causes horrendous damage. Some of the factors that cause difficulties include volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and extreme weather, few resources, steep mountain relief also known as topography and inaccessibility. .
Japan has many active volcanoes as it is located on the plate boundaries, where subduction zones exist. It also lies along the volcanic line called the 'Ring Of Fire', which locates 75% of the world's volcanoes. Around the Ring Of Fire, the Pacific plate collides with the other nearby plates. This is also another reason why there are many volcanoes in Japan. Japan lies on the Eurasian continental plate, while the Pacific oceanic plate is moving west towards Japan. Subduction occurs when the lighter continental plate shifts and slides on top of the oceanic plates. The large amount of energy produced by this cause the crust on the Earth's surface to split up and the mantle to liquefy into magma, and the magma escapes from the mantle through the cracks on the crust. As the magma is escaping from a confined space, a lot of energy is released with it, so it not only finds cracks in the earth's crust, it can also create them. When magma reaches the earth's surface it is called lava. This is why many eruptions also produce huge quantities of hot gases, dust and hot rock, also known as a Pyroclastic flow, which can be deadly and cause devastating results. A typical Pyroclastic flow can travel for several kilometres at a speed of up to 700km/h, and temperatures can reach up to 1000 degrees celsius. The kinetic energy of the moving flow will flatten trees and buildings in their path. The hot gases and high speed make them particularly lethal, as they will incinerate any living organisms instantly.
