Sofu-Iwa (Sofugan)
Izu Islands
29°48'N, 140°21'E
Attribution: Sofugan
at Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department Japan Coast Guard
A rock thrusting 325 feet above water from a sea floor over 3280 feet deep in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean.
It is at the southernmost of the Izu Islands. It's hard to reach a spot for diving with an abundance of fish and an area Japanese divers long for.
Underwater Videos
- 孀婦岩ダイビング1998 (5 min.) - Visivility 40M
It's so rare to find a Sofugan scuba diving video.
I booked a diving tour there in the 1980s, but missed the chance to dive Sofugan because the tour was canceled due to a lack of interest - to my regret to this day!
- Nobuo Hirai Channel: No music, only sound of breathing and bubble. It feels like actually diving myself!
- 孀婦岩 Sofu-gan Diving Yacht cruising 1 (0'48" - descending)
- 孀婦岩 Sofu-gan Diving Yacht cruising 2 (1'13'')
- 孀婦岩 Sofu-gan Diving Yacht cruising 3 (2'33'')
- 孀婦岩 Sofu-gan Diving Yacht cruising 4 (0'44'' - ascended)
Cruise
Tourism: Diving Tour, Cruise
- Dive cruising tour by Dive Station El-Mar
Contact them to see if they still have the tour. (I am pessimistic. Sofugan is such a hard place to go diving.)
Science
Underwater Topography
Sofuiwa - Sea floor Map
Attribution: Sofugan
at Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department Japan Coast Guard
Active Volcano
Sofugan
"Sofugan is a steep-sided pinnacle that rises 99 m above the sea surface south of Torishima volcano. Its dramatic and isolated setting prompted it to also be known as "Lot's Wife Rocks."
The basaltic-to-andesitic pinnacle is the remnant of a large stratovolcano that is 28 km wide at its base and rises 2200 m above the sea floor.
A submarine depression lies between the pinnacle and an arcuate submarine ridge to the SW that rises to less than 150 m of the sea surface.
In 1975 discolored sea water was observed about 500 m north of Sofugan, and the volcano was reclassified as active by the Japan Meteorological Agency in 2003."
Attribution: Global Volcanism Program