Konpira Crater Disaster Ruins Trail was added to Your Favorites!
Shikotsu-Tōya NP., Hokkaido
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Konomi Bridge, once part of National Route 230, was swept about 90 m downstream by the 2000 hot mudflow and slammed into the second floor of Sakuragaoka public housing. The impact damage remains on the trail.
The 2000 eruption was small by volcanic-explosivity standards (VEI 1), yet it opened 65 craters across the Nishiyama and Konpira foothills and damaged 850 homes. The vents and ground changes struck lived-in areas.
On March 29, officials ordered about 13,000 people to evacuate—2 days before Usu’s first eruption on March 31. Despite severe damage, the 2000 eruption caused no reported human casualties.
Yasuragi-no-Ie was a public bath where local residents and visitors mingled. The mudflow pushed its entrance door inward; the damaged bath and an apartment block were preserved inside a debris-control facility.
Beside Tamachan Crater, a stretch of trail can stay snow-free because hot-spring pipes run underground. The source water is over 100°C; its heat helps generate binary power before the water goes to local inns and hotels.
The craters’ friendly nicknames borrow characters from Usu’s name, 有珠: Yū-kun is 有くん, while Tama-chan is 珠ちゃん. The names turn the mountain’s written name into affectionate local crater labels.
Yū-kun (K-A) is the largest crater formed at Konpira in 2000. Its explosive ejecta built a tuff cone—a mound of volcanic fragments—and the crater now holds water.
The crater landscape is changing back: Ministry of the Environment photos show vegetation around Yū-kun noticeably recovering between 2008 and 2024. A winter snowshoe outing also found tracks of Ezo hares, squirrels and deer.
