is in the town of Shinano,

Kamiminochi District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of 2011, the district has an estimated population of 23,774. As a result of mergers the total area of the district is now 282.65 km2. Towns and villages *Iizuna * Shinano * Ogawa M ...

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Second to

Lake Suwa is a lake in the Kiso Mountains, in the central region of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Geography The lake is the source of the Tenryū River. It ranks 24th in lake water surface area in Japan. The cities of Suwa and Okaya and the town of Shimosuw ...

among lakes in Nagano Prefecture, Nojiri is a resort, the location of the first

pumped-storage hydroelectricity Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential ...

, and the site of a

Japanese Paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC; although any date of human presence before 35,000 BC ...

excavation.

Data

* Transparency: 5–7 m

Geography

The lake is located on a plateau with an altitude of 654m, which is between Mount Madarao in the east and

Mount Kurohime Mount Kurohime (Japanese: 黒姫山 ''Kurohime-yama'') is a stratovolcano located in Shinano town (信濃町), Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The mountain is one of the 200 most famous mountains in Japan (日本に百名山), and one of the 100 most ...

in the west. With an area of 4.56 km², it is the second largest natural lake in

after

. It has a depth of 39.1 m (128.2 ft), and its storage volume exceeds that of Lake Suwa. The water of the lake flows out through the Ikejiri River, joins the

Seki River The Seki River (関川) is a river in Niigata Prefecture and Nagano Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordere ...

, and flows into the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

. There are various theories regarding the creation of lake and it might have been dammed by the eruption of Mt. Madarao, or that it was dammed by the Ikejiri River mud flow caused by the eruption of Mt. Kurohime.

Fishing

The lake rarely freezes over in the winter. "Dome boats," outfitted with stoves, catch

smelt Smelt may refer to: * Smelting, chemical process * The common name of various fish: ** Smelt (fish), a family of small fish, Osmeridae ** Australian smelt in the family Retropinnidae and species ''Retropinna semoni'' ** Big-scale sand smelt ''At ...

(''

Hypomesus nipponensis ''Hypomesus nipponensis'' (Japanese smelt, in Japanese: ''wakasagi'') is a commercial food fish native to the lakes and estuaries of northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, Korea, and Sakhalin, Khabarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai, Ruassia. It has ...

'') in Lake Nojiri. The lake was once the home of native Japanese trout but now is home to bass from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Tategahana Paleolithic Site

In 1946, a tusk of ''

Palaeoloxodon naumanni ''Palaeoloxodon naumanni'', occasionally called Naumann's elephant, is an extinct species belonging to the genus ''Palaeoloxodon'' found in the Japanese archipelago during the Middle to Late Pleistocene around 430,000 to 24,000 years ago. It is na ...

'' (Naumann's Elephant, named in honor of the geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann, 1854–1927) was accidentally discovered. In 1962, excavations began at the edge and on the bottom of the lake. The location was a promontory known as Tategahana on the western shore. Discoveries included implements of stone and bone, fossils of ''Palaeoloxodon naumanni'', and of deer. Analyses of

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

paleomagnetism Paleomagnetism (or palaeomagnetismsee ), is the study of magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called ''paleomagnetists.'' Certain magnetic minerals in rock ...

, and

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcano, volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used t ...

place the site, with its fossils of humans and megafauna, in the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

, the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, about 40,000 years ago. Kondo et al. conclude that Tategahana is a "kill-butchering site."Y. Kondo, N. Mazima, Nojiri-ko Research Group p. 288

References

External links

Explore the Heart of Japan: Lake Nojiri-ko
The English guide to Lake Nojiri
''Palaeoloxodon naumanni'' and its environment at the paleolithic site of Lake Nojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan
The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome 2001. Y. Kondo, N. Mazima, Nojiri-ko Research Group
Lake Nojiri Naumann Elephant Museum (Nojiriko Museum)
(some English content) {{Authority control Nojiri Cenozoic paleontological sites of Asia Geography of Nagano Prefecture Paleoanthropological sites Landforms of Nagano Prefecture Shinano, Nagano