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Sofu-Iwa (Sofugan)

Izu Islands

29°48'N, 140°21'E


Sofu Iwa, Sofu Gan, Lot's Wife
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

Cruise

Tourism: Diving Tour, Cruise

Science

Underwater Topography

Sofuiwa - Sea floor Map

Sofugan underwater topography

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

 


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Last update December 25, 2023.
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