岩 - ROCKy Mountain High

Readings & Meanings:

いわ

ガン

rock, crag

Common Usage:

岩

溶岩

Examples:

岩だらけの山に登る。

阿蘇山の溶岩のかけらをお土産に買った。

Translations:

She's going to climb a very rocky mountain.

I bought some fragments of lava from Mount Aso as souvenirs.

Radical:

This one's easy. 山=mountain, 石=stone.

Turns out that 岩 is a variant and simplification of 巖 (also known as 巌).

See, even the Japanese thought 巖 was too hard.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/knetwork/KAM.html#KAM04
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kanji/kanji/u.htm