Geography of Japan

Japan is geologically a volcanic archipelago that stretches along the East coast of Asia on the border with the Pacific plate and the Eurasian plate. Seen Geographically areHokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu Japan the main islands, but in addition another 3000 smaller islands with a total of 29 751 km coastline. Japan has a total area of 377 835 km² of which 374 744 acres (2.0 km2) of land and 3 091 it land with which the country 12 times greater than 9 times larger than Belgium and Netherlands. The actual surface of a mountainous country is still larger than that of a vertical map projection of it. ==Climate[ Edit] == Japan belongs to the moderate temperature zone. The climate varies from subtropical in the South to very cool temperatures in the North, but the climate also varies depending on the altitude and proximity to the Pacific Ocean. Northern Japan has warm summers and long and cold winters with heavy snowfall, Central Japan has warm, humid summers and short winters, and southern Japan has long humid summers and mild winters. ==Relief[ Edit] == Japan exists for such a 73% from mountainous landscape, with a large mountain range stretching from the North to the South. Japan's highest mountain is the famous volcano with a height of about Fuji 3776 m, dormant since 1709. Japan is separated from the Mainland by the sea of Japan, between Japan and the Korean peninsula at least 200 km wide. The Japanese islands are formed by the removal of the Eurasian plate due to the disappearance of the Pacific trenches off the coast in the crust. The small amount of habitable land caused great human changes in relief, by building dike (Weir) and drainage land reclamation was done. Also in the mountains becomes by means of terrace construction as much as possible, land in use for agriculture, nowadays also artificial islands constructed for the development of industrial areas and ports.Most rivers are onbevaarbaar and rarely longer than 300 km, but by the many relief differences one can easily build hydro-electric power stations . The Shinano is the longest river in Japan. ==Natural Disasters[ Edit] == Japan is located in a geologically very unstable area, 10% of all active volcanoes in the world are located in Japan. Each year, more than 1500 earthquakes measured, quakes of 4 to 6 on the Richter scale are not uncommon. Occasionally there are also large, catastrophic earthquakes, the most famous in the 20th century was probably thegreat Kantō earthquake in 1923, in which 130,000 people died. Submarine earthquakes provide the danger of tidal waves or tsunami's in the long coastal lines of Japan. In 2011, among other things, there was a large earthquake off the coast followed by a tsunami. Japan is regularly hit by hurricanes, forming the archipelago via the Pacific Ocean.

Japan has become the world leader due to its location on the research into the causes and predictions of earthquakes, the development of advanced technologies has allowed the construction of skyscrapers in sensitive areas.