The eruption of Novarupta in June 1912 left the nearby Alaskan town of Kodiak covered in such thick ash that natives couldn't see a lantern held at arms length (“Mysteries of Canada”). Volcanic eruptions like Novarupta are immensely dangerous and detrimental if populated areas are close. Luckily, this eruption was in a secluded area that was miles away from nearby cities, so it did not cause chaos, but the outcome could have been copiously worse. What was the cause of the seemingly precipitous Novarupta eruption? Scientist believe they have found the cause of Novarupta recently. The Katamai volcanoes, which Novarupta is a part of, are situated in a subduction zone. That is, essentially, an area where one tectonic plate moves below another
● These “sector collapse” (the name of this type of eruption) have now been identified
It is believed that this volcanic area was caused by a localised hot spot within the Pacific plate. A concentration of radioactive elements inside of the mantle may have caused this hot spot to develop. The hot spot is stationary so as the Pacific plate moves over it a line of volcanoes are made. This is more proof that the Earth’s crust is moving as suggested by Wegener.
With no prolonged periods of inactivity the volcano has continuously built up on itself. The last major eruption took place in 1790 and killed many people and animals, but numbers are unknown4. Starting in 1983 there was a chain of several eruptions that started and have yet to stop pushing lava through a lava tube till it reaches the Pacific Ocean. Over a span of twenty year the flow has
The first sign of Mt. St. Helen exploding was a landslide starting at the rim of the summit crater. In 15 seconds, the north side of Mt. St. Helen was making its way down the side of the volcano. After the entire north side had collapsed superheated gasses and lava were released in a massive lateral explosion. This abrupt release of pressure created a nuees arfentes, “which is (in a volcanic eruption) a swiftly flowing, dense cloud of hot gases, ashes, and lava fragments.”1. The nuees arfentes wiped everything within 8 miles almost instantly. The shockwave rolled over the forest for 19 more miles forcing almost all of the centuries old trees to fall towards the north. After those 27 miles the trees remained upright but were burnt to death.
The damage of this explosion was deadly. The eruption cased over 57 deaths. Every single tree in the forest and on the mountain fell down and burned. Ash blew everywhere. Cars on the road got stuck in ash and people could not get out. They suffered and died. During the explosion the top blew off, witched caused 1,300 feet difference.
Once the eruption had started, we find out “Fifty-seven people are dead.” and “Some are up to 13 miles away, in areas considered safe.” This informs us about the devastation in these deaths and how powerful the explosion really was. The author also uses scientific diction to be more precise
On the morning of May 18, 1980, the United States of America experienced its deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in history. Briefly succeeding a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, an enormous slab of Mount St. Helens northern flank collapsed in a massive debris avalanche. This landslide was the largest to transpire on Earth in recorded history and caused the volcanoes magma system to depressurize. With the cap of the mountain removed, superheated gases and rock fragments blasted through the side of the mountain (USDA, 2005). The lateral blast accelerated at speeds of 480 km per hour and reached temperatures of 350 °C, creating an immense area of leveled and scorched forestry. Surges of water from melting snow and glaciers capping
The large rift is a result of an immense geological event that produced large earthquakes and volcanic activity nearly 1 billion years ago. The event is a prime example of plate tectonic theory. Large plates along the mountains continually would shift allowing stratovolcano activity to persist.
Megathrust earthquakes are defined as interplate earthquakes caused by one tectonic plate being forced under another in a subduction zone. During the lifetime of a subduction zone, two plates are constantly moving towards each other, and due to the great amount of friction, these plates get “stuck” in various areas 2 (fig 1). Due to the build-up of stress in these areas, the plates eventually unlock and release a great amount of energy, resulting in a megathrust earthquake2.
Magmatism refers to action and movement of magma. Magma is the molten rock that exists within the earth’s mantle, and that is in a state of constant motion resulting from the enormous amount of pressure exerted on it by the overlying layers. The earth’s crust is divided into many plates which are also in a constant state of slow motion against each other. The edges of these plates form weak points at which volcanic activity often occurs. Rifts also form edges that run down to the earth’s mantle. As such, volcanic activities often take place along these rifts. Multiple volcanic features are found along these faults which are evidence of the magmatism. Furthermore, the movement of the plates and the magma along the faults also causes the regular occurrence of earthquakes in these regions. Also, magmatism also plays an important role in the formation of the rifts. However, not all rifts experience magmatism and in some cases, some fault lines are volcanically dormant. This paper shall compare the Great East African Rift with the Rio Grande Rift to identify similarities and differences between these rift systems.
On the 12th of June (Philippine Independence Day), millions of cubic yards of gas-charged magma reached the surface and resulted in the first major eruption which was then followed by a series of eruptions. It produced a 19 km long ash column and pyroclastic flows that extended up to four km from the summit to the river valleys. Later, a 15 minute eruption hurled ash straight up to the sky, reaching the heights of 24 km. The super heated air and the friction between
On February 8th of this year, hot molten lava started to shoot out of a sea cliff and stream into the Pacific Ocean, causing an explosion to happen. In the Newsela article called “ Hot Hawaiian lava hitting cool ocean water creates an explosive show” It tells you all about how this lava show happened.
The graph to the right displays the number of earthquakes in the months leading up to three eruptions that occurred on June 27, August 18, and September 16-17 of 1992 at Mt. Spurr, located 80 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska. The vertical red lines indicate the eruptions. The graph shows that there was an erratic but visible increase in the frequency of seismic activity leading up to the first eruption. It also shows that the second and third eruptions were not preceded by a marked increase in seismic activity, and that during two weeks following the last eruption in November and December, a large frequency of earthquakes took place without an eruption occurring afterwards. This illustrates how difficult it can be to predict when an eruption is likely to take place and underscores the importance of using several methods concurrently to predict volcanism.
Lumps of Lava cool into solid rocks as they fly through the sky, forming rounded chunks that can be also known as bombs, while pieces with corners and sharp edges are named blocks. Both bombs and blocks can cause a great deal of damage. As the volcano begins to burst, the sky fills with choking, smoky powder, while it starts raining lava, and rock. The air warmed quicker than when you pour kerosene on a fire, with a sound so loud it circled the earth four times, red hot lava flows down the side of the volcano and magma spews out the top. The only taste in my mouth is the smoke coming from the lava, as the gas in the air turned all my silver jewelry black. I feel very frightened knowing this is such a normal thing to happen in different
Volcanos are deadly, can form on islands or mainland, and can destroy mountains and cities. Volcanos commonly form from holes in the earth containing magma. When pressure builds up in these magma chambers, they explode resulting in magma and rock catapulting out into the air. As these volcanoes repeatedly explode, they leak magma, which runs down the side of the volcano. Eventually, the lava cools and transforms into solid rock, building up the volcano to mountain size. An example of giant volcanic eruptions is the Pompeii disaster in 79AD, when Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed all of Pompeii. Another example includes, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, which destroyed the whole mountain. Volcanos