Mt. Karakunidake: Summit
The summit of Mt. Karakunidake is the highest point in the park, at 1,700 meters above sea level. It offers 360-degree views. To the south is a vast crater lake, Onamiike, which formed around 50,000 years ago. The lake’s surface is more than 1,200 meters above sea level. To the southeast stands Mt. Shinmoedake, where the traces of a 2017 eruption can still be seen as dark streaks of cooled lava on the mountainside. Beyond that rises Mt. Takachihonomine, and on a clear day even the Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima Bay is visible.
The crater of Mt. Karakunidake is 900 meters across and 300 meters deep. It was formed 17,000 years ago, opened on its northwestern side by a separate eruption thousands of years later. This gave the crater rim its distinctive horseshoe-like shape, so that the mountain has different profiles when seen from different directions.