Located in central Japan, where it follows the Tedori River from Mount Hakusan down to the sea, the Hakusan Tedorigawa Geopark records approximately 300 million years of history. It contains rocks that were formed by the collision of continents. It also has strata containing fossils of dinosaurs which accumulated in rivers and lakes on land at a time when Japan was attached to the Eurasian continent. Volcanic deposits formed during the rifting process which separated Japan from the Eurasian continent about 15 million years ago, as the subducting plates pulled Japan eastward. More recent volcanic deposits date from the eruption of the still-active Mount Hakusan, one of Japan’s ‘Three Holy Mountains’. Rising 2 702 m above sea level, it records some of the highest levels of snowfall in the world for a mountain so close to the Equator. This heavy snowfall drives a water and erosion cycle that is continuously shaping the landscape.