Significant Effect of Volcanic Eruption

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Volcanic eruptions can affect the environment even at kilometers far from the eruptive center. Plants and animals are destroyed over a wide area, during an eruption. The sudden violence of the volcanic eruptions causes disaster and destruction. Various well known volcano eruptions of the past, such as Mount Pelée, Tambora, Krakatau and Pinatubo demonstrated a devastating effect of volcanic activity on nearby landscapes and communities.

These are some of the environmental effects of volcanic eruptions.

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Volcanic ash is a volcanic rock which is exploded from a vent in fragments less than 2mm in size. Volcanic ash-particles are like small sharp glass-particles that damage anything they come across. During heavy ash-rains houses and buildings may collapse, people and animals may die by lack of oxygen. Ash clouds causes big problems for aviation. Airplanes can crash when ash clouds choke their engines. Ash cloud can also block sunlight and cause global cooling.

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Volcanic Gases: Mount Pinatubo's (Philippines) devastating explosion on June 15, 1991 resulted in an incredible surge of sulfur dioxide gas into the stratosphere where it combined with water to form acid rain (sulfuric acid). The new aerosol deteriorated the Earth's ozone layer by altering the chlorine and nitrogen compounds. Carbon dioxide was also released that elevated global warming and also contributed to acid rain.

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Lahars: However, of all the effects of volcanoes, mudflows or lahars are the deadliest. Debris flows of mud, rock, and water travel down the flank and into valleys and streams at velocities of 20 mph to 40 mph. Some of the most extreme cases have lahars with a consistency of wet concrete flowing up to 50 miles. They destroy houses, trees, and huge boulders like a flood.

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Pyroclastic flows are mixtures of hot gas, ash and other volcanic rocks travelling very quickly down the slopes of volcanoes. Pyroclastic flows are so hot and choking that if one is caught in one the person will certainly be killed. Because these flows are very fast they cannot be out-runned. If a volcano that is known for producing pyroclastic flows is looking like it may erupt soon, the best thing is to evacuate all the people living near the volcano.

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Debris avalanches and landslides can produce numerous dangers. The mixture of debris from a landslide or avalanche with water may produce harmful lahars. They also can dam rivers or cause flooding. Perhaps one of the most important hazards that can be produced by volcanic eruption caused earthquakes, avalanches or landslides is a tsunami. Tsunamis are large sea waves that have long wave periods. When these waves reach coastal areas, they can go far inland which can cause a lot of damage.

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Volcanic blast occurs when magma rises asymmetrically into the cone, making one sector of the volcano bulge outwards and become unstable. At Mount St.Helen’s eruption, the volcanic blast very hot (200C) blast devastated an area of 600sqkm! Trees and buildings were razed to the ground and scorched.

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Lava flows burn or bury everything they come across. They can run over houses, roads, and any other structures. The speed, and the power of the lavaflow depends on the type of lava. Aa lavas for example can leave the vent with a speed of about 50km. The surface the lava flows on will be changed by very quickly emplacing a layer of very new and hot rock onto the pre-existing terrain. The pre-existing terrain is destroyed by the lava flow. People rarely get killed directly by lava. However, lava flows may start fires which are a lot more dangerous for the environment around the volcano.

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There is no such thing as stopping volcanic eruption. All we can do, is to be prepare and be aware.

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