Mount Unzen (center right in this orthorectified image) is an active volcanic group of several overlapping stratovolcanoes. The group is located near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, on the island of Kyūshū, Japan’s southernmost main island.
In 1792, the collapse of one of its several lava domes triggered a tsunami that killed about 15,000 people in Japan’s worst-ever volcanic-related disaster. The volcano was most recently active from 1990 to 1995, and a large eruption in 1991 generated a pyroclastic flow that killed 43 people, including three volcanologists.
Currently its highest peaks are Fugendake at 1,359 metres (4,459 ft) and Heisei Shinzan at 1,486 metres (4,875 ft). The latter emerged during the eruptions of the eponymous Heisei era.
