Shinmoedake volcano: The Shinmoedake cone on the Kirishima
mountain range erupted on Sunday, the largest blast from the
volcano in 52 years. When it comes to building a country, you'd
be hard-pressed to do it in a more volatile part of the world
than Japan. About 1,500 earthquakes strike the island nation
every year. Minor tremors occur on a nearly daily basis. Deadly
quakes are a tragic part of the nation's past. The anniversary
of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, for example, which killed
more than 100,000 people around Tokyo, is now national Disaster
Prevention Day. More recently, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck
the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,000 people. Japan
has such a large potential for earthquakes — and disaster —
because the nation sits atop four huge slabs of the Earth's
crust, called tectonic plates. These plates mash and grind
together and trigger deadly earthquakes, like the 8.9-magnitude
quake that struck on Friday (March 11). [Photos: Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami in Pictures