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Minami Alps NP, Shizuoka / Nagano
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At the meadow nicknamed “Heidi’s Hill,” freeze–thaw cycles arrange stones into polygons called kikkōjōdo—“tortoiseshell ground.” This geometric patch lies between Mt Kamikochidake and Mt Chausudake.
Some nearby patterned ground rises rather than forming stone polygons: moss and grasses cover earth hummocks about 1m wide and 20–30cm high. Such mounds are unusual on Honshu.
These mossy mounds may still be growing: Shizuoka City says frost needles or lens-shaped ice inside them could lift the soil higher year by year. This landscape may be more than an Ice Age relic.
Scientists were measuring this ground by 1971. A field study of Mt Kamikochidake–Mt Chausudake and Daisetsuzan documented sorted-stone circles in two size classes: 10–15cm and 1–1.5m across.
The circles may be pushed up from below: a 1971 study judged the heaving of a fine-grained lower soil layer the likeliest explanation for the stone patterns—not simply stones shifting across the surface.
