Abstract
AN instructive physiographic map or diagram of Japan on a scale of about 80 miles to an inch is published by Dr. G. T. Trewartha in the Geographical Review of July. Japan lends itself to this treatment since about seventy-five per cent of the land is mountainous and the lowlands are mainly peripheral. The diagram brings out in a striking way the contrasts between the main structural regions of Japan, that is to say, the inner and outer zones running the length of the islands and meeting in fault scarps and tectonic depressions, except in central Honshu where the great zone of depression cuts across the country and the rift is partly filled by later accumulations. The outer zone of Pacific fold mountains appears as a series of well-developed longitudinal ridges and valleys with few noteworthy plains, but separated in the south by subsidence into isolated mountain masses. By contrast the inner zone appears as a rugged hill country of dissected block plateaux, some upheaved and others depressed with much volcanic activity. The Inland Sea forms a notable area of depression in this zone.
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Physiographic Map of Japan. Nature 135, 63 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135063b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135063b0