Lake-filled Mikuriga-ike explosion crater is part of Tate-yama, a dissected stratovolcano on a plateau surrounded by high granite-and-gneiss peaks of the North Japan Alps. Formation of a 4-km-wide caldera was followed by repeated Pleistocene eruptions of lava and pyroclastics forming a plateau that was later dissected by the Yu-kawa river. Holocene eruptions have been restricted to small phreatic explosions that formed craters, such as the one seen here. Hot springs occur in seven locations on the floor of the poorly defined caldera. Photo by Ichio Moriya, 1992 (Kanazawa University).