A volatile beauty: Flickr photo of the day

Some of the most iconic images of rural Japan are those of Fujisan (Mount Fuji). The 12,389-foot volcano last erupted in 1708.

While on a bicycle outing, Japanese photographer Jun-ta stopped at an overlook, in Hakone, in Kanagawa Prefecture and captured this late-afternoon image of windblown Chinese Fairy Grass, aglow in the late afternoon sun.

Lovely as it is, Fujisan is a ticking time bomb. Since the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, rising pressures within Fujisan’s Lava Chamber have begun to concern the scientists who monitor such things. Japanese people have grown accustomed to earthquakes; volcanic eruptions are something else, indeed.