Tamagawa Hot Spring
The Tamagawa Hot Spring in Senboku, Akita Prefecture, Japan is the highest flow rate hot spring in Japan. The spring has a flow rate of 150 litres/second. It feeds a 3-meter wide stream with a temperature of 98 °C. The water from Tamagawa Hot Spring is very acidic, with a pH of about 1.1.
There is radioactive radium gas and other radioactive materials dissolved in the water from the hot spring.
There are deposits of the radioactive mineral hokutolite near the spring. Hokutolite is composed of a type of barite (barium sulfate), including lead and traces of strontium and calcium. The hokutolite is about ten times as radioactive as the standard background.[1]
There are two lodging facilities available in the area, Tamagawa Onsen, an inn located near the spring (opens from mid April to December, and closed for winter since 2012 due to the avalanche on February 1, 2012, which killed 3 people), and Shin-Tamagawa Onsen, a hotel about a kilometer down from the spring which opens year-round, run by the sane owner of Tamagawa Onsen inn. Tamagawa Onsen inn and the spring area are only accessible by a snowcat in December after the road is closed for the traffic by the end of November due to the heavy snowfall in the area.
There is at least one more hot spring in Tamagawa. Nibukawa Hot Spring is also in Tamagawa.
See also
References
Coordinates: 39°57′47.5″N 140°43′29″E / 39.963194°N 140.72472°E