Volcano: Consequences

According to the Smithsonian Institute, there are more than 1500 active volcanoes, but many more dormant ones could reinvigorate themselves. Furthermore, one in ten people in the world lives within danger range of volcanoes. Volcanoes can call damage to houses, buildings, and roads but also have beneficial effects.

Volcanoes erupt and eject ash from its vents which cover buildings, roads, and fields. Houses often collapse from the massive weight of an ash fall and roads become hard to travel. When the ash fall becomes really heavy it can suffocate people – in fact, ash fall and gas suffocation are the leading cause of death from a volcano. Exposure to ash can be deadly, and the danger is especially great to infants, elderly people, and those with respiratory conditions. The ash is gritty, abrasive, and even corrosive sometimes. They can scratch the front of the eye or cause a respiratory disease called silicosis.

As most are familiar with, volcanoes erupt and lava flows out of its vent. Contrary to portrayals by the mass media, lava flows generally too slow to engulf people, but they generally can destroy immobile objects such as houses and infrastructure. However, pyroclastic flows, mixtures of hot gas and ash, travel extremely quickly (100-200 km/hour) and will kill whoever is caught in them. Mudflows are another associated result of volcanic eruptions that also represent a great danger.

One in ten people in the world lives within danger range of volcanoes.

Eruptions also have significant impacts on the surrounding plant and animal life. Livestock and mammals have been killed by lava flows and the related famine, forest fires, and earthquakes. For example, Mount St. Helens’s 1980 eruption produced pyroclastic lava flows that  killed 11,000 hares, 6,000 deer, 5,200 elk, 1,400 coyotes, 300 bobcats, 200 black bears, and 15 mountain lions. Further, the increase in acidity and change in temperature effect pH sensitive aquatic life and food chains.

Volcanic eruptions also have somewhat of an impact on the weather. There is often significant rain, lightning, and thunder during an eruptions because the ash particles ejected collect water droplets. These implications are usually temporary, and lasting global effects only occur when significant material is thrown into the stratosphere from large explosive eruptions. If the particles are large then they trap heat from the Earth’s surface and lead to a warmer earth (the Greenhouse effect). Small particles less than 2 microns in diameter block incoming energy and cause the Earth to be a little cooler.

The last super-volcanic eruption was 74,000 years ago in Sumatra – ten thousand times bigger than Mount St. Helens.

A phenomena called super-volcanoes are formed by magma rising to create boiling chambers in the Earth's crust.  These reservoirs build up to humongous sizes and finally erupt as the pressures become too great. The last super-volcanic eruption was 74,000 years ago in Sumatra – ten thousand times bigger than Mount St. Helens. The ensuring global catastrophe greatly implicated plant and animal life. A current dormant super-volcano is in Yellowstone National Park, which erupted 640,000 years ago.

Despite all the potential harmful effects of volcanoes, they can affect people and the environment in good ways. They provide good scenery to promote tourism and generate a multitude of benefits to the surrounding environment. Volcanic ash contains minerals and is very fine so it mixes into the soil easily. Steep, inaccessible volcanic slopes can also provide a haven for rare plants and animals to be safe from humans and livestock. The earth’s center contains mass amounts of heat that are allowed to release during eruptions. Additionally, volcanic gases are a great source for the water and the atmosphere we have today. Finally, volcanoes create islands and add to the continents.

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