by the Tsutsumi and Komagome rivers. The junction of the Tsutsumi and Komagome rivers just north of Tsutsui Station on the Aoimori Railway Line would be the most heavily impacted populated area during a large eruption, with many areas struck by over a meter of debris. An eruption from Mount Ōdake could also produce pyroclastic flows that could travel up to and expel lava up to from the volcano. Due to volcanic deformation, the summit of Mount Takada-Ōdake shifted to the west and increased in elevation by , shifting its summit from the border of Aomori and Towada to being entirely in the city of Towada. As of May 2020, intense fumarole activity was ongoing at Jigokunuma near Sukayu Onsen and National Routes 103 / 394. Human history During the Jōmon period, human activity rapidly increased in the Hakkōda Mountains after a large-scale, Plinian eruption of the Lake Towada volcanic caldera. It is hypothesized that the removal of the mountains' beech forest in the eruption made room for the chestnut groves that the Jōmon people in the area relied heavily on. In 1684, during the Edo period, Sukayu Onsen was founded at a hot spring near Jigokunuma. A hunter tracking a deer he had wounded came upon the deer near a hot spring. The hunter notice that the deer had apparently been healed of its injuries by the hot spring. The location became known as Shikayu Onsen, literally "the deer's hot spring". As the amount of visitors grew, the onsen became known as Sukayu. The onsen is still a major attraction in the mountains. In 1929, Tohoku University established the Mount Hakkōda Plant Experimentation Laboratory near Sukayu Onsen. The mountains, along with the Lake Towada area, were set aside under the as a protected part of Towada National Park in 1936. On 3 August 1953, the national park was expanded, extending its protected status to the Tashiro Plateau Wetland in the caldera of the Northern Group of the Hakkōda Mountains. After the park was established, the mountains were listed collectively as one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains compiled by the mountaineer Kyūya Fukada in 1964. This list gained popularity after it gained the attention of Emperor Naruhito, who would attempt to summit every entry on the list. The Hakkōda Ropeway was opened in October 1968, providing aerial lift access to the top of Mount Tamoyachidake, one of the peaks