Fossa Magna is a great rift lowland in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is often confused with the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line. However, Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line is a line; Fossa Magna is an area. Fossa Magna is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "great crevasse". This name was given by Heinrich Edmund Naumann.

Fossa Magna Museum

Fossa Magna Museum is a museum that is located in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture. It opened on April 25, 1994. It is part of Itoigawa UNESCO Global Geopark. Itoigawa is located directly above Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line and is a place where you can observe a wide variety of rocks, minerals, geological structures and so on. The Fossa Magna Park, a

geopark A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which Sustainability, sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant s ...

, is also located in Itoigawa.

References

Landforms of Japan Geology of Japan {{Japan-geo-stub