The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

of the island of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island s ...

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 n ...

. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

. The peninsula has an area of and its estimated population in 2005 was 473,942 people. The peninsula’s populated areas are located primarily on the north and east.

Geology

Tectonically, the Izu peninsula results from the

Philippine Sea Plate The Philippine Sea Plate or the Philippine Plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part ...

colliding with the

Okhotsk Plate The Okhotsk Plate is a minor tectonic plate covering the Kamchatka Peninsula, Magadan Oblast, and Sakhalin Island of Russia; Hokkaido, Kantō and Tōhoku regions of Japan; the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the disputed Kuril Islands. It was ...

at the

Nankai Trough The is a submarine trough located south of the Nankaidō region of Japan's island of Honshu, extending approximately offshore. The underlying fault, the ''Nankai megathrust,'' is the source of the devastating Nankai megathrust earthquakes, wh ...

. The Philippine Sea Plate, the Amurian Plate, and the

meet at

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest ...

, a

triple junction A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction each of the three boundaries will be one of three types – a ridge (R), trench (T) or transform fault (F) – and triple junctions can b ...

. The peninsula itself lies on the Philippine Sea Plate. The southern portion of the peninsula is composed largely of

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

, and the central and northern portions consist of numerous highly eroded

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

es. The Amagi Mountain Range dominates the center of the peninsula with

Mount Amagi is a range of volcanic mountains in central Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, forming the border between Izu City and Higashi-Izu Town. It is also referred to as the . The Amagi mountains have several peaks, the tallest of whic ...

() and Mount Atami () in the east and Mount Daruma () in the west, with the eastern and western portions of the range extending underwater into Sagami Bay and

Suruga Bay Suruga Bay (駿河湾, ''Suruga-wan'') is a bay on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is situated north of a straight line from Omaezaki Point to Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula and surrounded by Hon ...

. The peninsula's major river, the

Kano River The is an A class river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . The Kano River originates from Mount Amagi in central Izu Peninsula and follows a generally northern path into Suruga Bay at Numazu. The Iz ...

in the north, flows through a

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic conte ...

valley created by plate tectonics. As a result of its underlying geology, the peninsula is prone to frequent earthquake swarms and

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

s, and it abounds in

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

Administration

All of Izu Peninsula is within

. It is administratively divided into eight cities and five towns: * Atami * Itō * Izu * Izunokuni * Mishima * Shimoda * Kamo District ** Higashiizu ** Kawazu ** Matsuzaki ** Minamiizu ** Nishiizu

Economics

A popular resort region for tourists from the

Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Sl ...

, the Izu peninsula is primarily known for '' onsen'' hot spring resorts in Atami, Shuzenji, and Itō. The area is also popular for sea bathing, surfing, golfing and motorcycle touring. The peninsula abuts

and is a part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The southwest coast of Izu, from the municipalities of Matsuzaki, Nishiizu and Minamiizu was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 1937. Aside from tourism, agriculture and fishing are the mainstays of the local economy. Izu is one of the biggest producers of '' wasabi'' in Japan, and the local cuisine offers dishes flavored with ''wasabi''. Nevertheless, these industries are not lucrative enough to prevent a heavy loss of population to Greater Tokyo and Shizuoka, particularly among the young.

Access

Railway

The northern parts of Izu peninsula is easily accessible from Tokyo and points west via the

Tōkaidō Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 19 ...

, which has stations in both Atami in the northeast and Mishima in the northwest. JR Itō Line and the Izu Kyūkō Line provides service along the east coast of the peninsula to Shimoda, however given the lack of population, these services are less regular. Central Izu is served by the Sunzu Line as far as Shuzenji. The west coast of the peninsula is less developed, and has no train service.

Roadway

Izu Peninsula is served by numerous expressways. By car, it is from the Yōga Interchange (用賀インター ''Yōga Intā'') on the Tokyo end of the Tōmei Expressway to Numazu. To get to the eastern side, a branch at Atsugi leads to the Odawara-Atsugi Road, which continues past Odawara to Yugawara, Atami, and Shimoda. Izu Peninsula is also served by Japan National Route 135, Japan National Route 136, and

Japan National Route 414 is a national highway of Japan connecting Shimoda, Shizuoka and Numazu, Shizuoka is a city located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 189,486 in 91,986 households, and a population density of 1, ...

. Izu also offers two scenic roads, called " Izu Skyline" (伊豆スカイライン) and " Western Izu Skyline" (西伊豆スカイライン）that offer beautiful views on nature and Mt. Fuji. Both skyline roads are favorite spots of car and motorcycle enthusiasts. The Odakyu Electric Railway runs local bus services from Odawara and Hakone, and there is an extensive but infrequent internal bus network.

Airway

On August 12, 1985, Flight JAL 123, while crossing peninsular airspace, experienced an explosion in the aft pressure bulkhead, resulting in an accident that killed 520 people, becoming one of the deadliest air disasters in human history.

References

External links

Izu Peninsula GeoparkIzu Peninsula
- Encyclopædia Britannica'' Online

- Shizuoka Guide (Shizuoka Prefectural Tourism Association)
Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka
- Japan National Tourist Organization {{Authority control Peninsulas of Japan Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc Landforms of Shizuoka Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty