The Mount Etna Volcano

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.

Stratovolcano and Shield volcanos are naturally occurring ruptures in the earth’s crust. They have been a part of our history for nearly 6,000 years and some say that they have been around longer than dinosaurs. While these events are rather cool to watch, they are known to be some of the most devastating natural disasters known to man. Volcanic hazards and eruptions continue to happen throughout the entire world and crisis aversion is something that is becoming more and more important.

A volcano is an earth hazard that occurs on faults between tectonic plates on a destructive boundary and an eruption is a natural disaster. A primary impact happens immediately after the disaster and before any response like death or collapsing or destruction of buildings. A secondary impact occurs later after the disaster, such less farm produce or a reduction in tourism. The severity of these impacts will differ considerably in a MEDC and LEDC where volcanic eruptions have taken place. These may be seen in the Mount St. Helen volcano eruption as well as in the Iceland volcanic eruption. They may also

The volcanoes are located where there is a divergence or convergence in the tectonic plates and bring their lava from the deepest of the terrestrial mantle. The materials and explosions of these ginates represent a constant risk in the places inhabited by the human being, nevertheless the people ususually live in these areas no matter the risk. On the other hand the volcanos can change the geology of an impressive form, or to cool the temperature of the earth, or to darken the sky. The scientific community increases its efforts to try to understand better what happens in volcanoes, however it is impossible to predict these conditions.

Volcanoes are one of the most destructive, yet, most beautiful things on Earth. They can make a famous city choke in its own ashes in one day, like Pompeii. Or they can turn a once damaging mountain into a graceful and peaceful home for new life, like Mount St. Helen’s. All volcanoes are unique, and no two are the same. Some erupt differently than others, some look different than others, and all are located in different spots all over the world. I learned this while completing the project and the five volcanoes I researched are examples of my discoveries. The five volcanoes I researched were Mount Hood, Mount Mageik, Long Island, Mount Muria, and Las Pilas.

Normally, lava was able to flow out cracks or also known as vents in the mountain closing. But one day, Lava was building pressure on Mount St. Helens. At the end of April 1980, Mount St. Helens began to grow silently. Swelling was spotted on the

The Earth’s outer crust is made up many tectonic plates that move over the surface of the planet. When the plates come collide, volcanoes will form sometime (National Ocean Service). Volcanoes can also form in the middle of a plate, where magma rises upward until it erupts on the sea floor, at what is called a “hot spot” (National Ocean Service). A hot spot is a plume of magma or molten rock that rises from within the Earth then reaches the surface forming underwater volcanoes which may grow tall enough to

A volcano is defined as a mountain or hill that usually has a cup like crater at the summit. A volcano can be compared to a vent in the earths crust through which lava, ashes and steam are expelled (Volcano, n.d.). There are three main types of volcanoes that scientist have discovered active, dormant, and extinct (howstuffworks.com). Active volcanoes are the ones which have erupted recently, or are expected to blow soon (howstuffworks.com). For example Kilauea volcano on Hawaii is the world’s most active volcano (volcanodiscovery.com). A dormant volcano is one that hasn’t erupted in a long while but has a chance erupt again in the future (howstuffworks.com). Best example there is of a dormant volcano is Mauna Kea which is one of the five mountains that make up the big island of Hawaii (Crain, 2009). And extinct volcanoes are the ones that erupted thousands of years ago and has no possibility of erupting again (howstuffworks.com). An extinct volcano is mount Buninyong which is located in Austria the last time this volcano erupted was a little over ten centuries ago and is now somewhat a tourist attraction.

Mount Vesuvius, like most volcanoes was created through the interactions between continental plates. Mount Vesuvius was formed 17,000 years ago through the convergence of two tectonic plates, the African plate and the Eurasian plate. Vesuvius is located above a subduction zone in which the African plate is being subducted by the Eurasian plate (Ball). The African plate has been subducted at a rate of about one inch every year. This type of interaction between converging plates is responsible for creating volcanoes (Figure 1). This created a submerged deep ocean volcano in the Bay of Naples. Later, Mount Vesuvius emerged from the ocean as an island. However, over time it was connected to the mainland due to buildup of deposits from its eruptions.

Ask anyone in the Pacific Northwest to name a volcano in the area and you will most likely get the response of “Mount St. Helens”. There is good reason for this particular volcano to have gained such a great reputation for itself, and that is the eruption which occurred in 1980. Beginning in March, new systems of seismographs were being implemented to track the size of earthquakes that were happening in the St. Helens area. Earthquakes were recorded up to three times a day almost daily and on March 27th, an official warning was sent out as one of the quakes caused a stream of ash over 6,000 feet into the air. On the morning of May 18th, 8:32am, an earthquake measuring in at a magnitude of 5.1 on the seismograph signaled the beginning of the eruption.

To begin, a volcano is a mountain with an opening in the top or side that sometimes sends out rocks, ash, lava, in a sudden eruption (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). A volcano erupts when pressure builds inside the mountain. Magma, lava while it is inside the volcanoe, pushes through the weakened crust. When this built up pressure is released, Earth’s plates move causing a volcanic eruption. Also, dangerous flows of steaming lava can reach up to 2,000

The active volcano that I chose to research is Popocatepetl volcano. Popocatepetl volcano is an active volcano located in Mexico. The volcano is oftentimes referred to as “El Popo” by many Mexicans. El Popo is a composite cone volcano. Being a composite cone volcano, El Popo is characterized by a steep cone shape, which was created by many composite layers of material pouring out over numerous eruptions. The lava that comes out of El Popo is extremely viscous. The highly viscous lava does not travel very far, and typically cools down rapidly. Scientists believe that El Popo is about 730,000 years old. It has erupted more than 15 times since 1519. In 1994 El Popo produced gas and ash, which caused nearby towns to evacuate. The toxic

The volcano is actually a volcano inside of a volcano. When scientists studied the structure they pointed out its two different cone shaped tops spread about three miles long of a valley in between. They then stated that it was two volcanoes one inside the other in some geographic way. The eruption in 79AD was the first recorded eruption for history. Mount Vesuvius is in the Campanian volcanic arc along with Vulcan and some others

The signs of an impending eruption began to appear long before it actually occurred, the first major sign being earthquakes. Earthquakes are a common indicator of the possibility of rising magma, which is required to occur for a volcano to erupt. These Earthquakes were reportedly occurring as far back as 62 AD, as they continued sporadically all throughout the 17 year period leading up to the eruption. (History of Pompeii book) One such quake caught the attention of the residents of the region when it occurred in 63 AD. The quake was large and rocked the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, doing extensive damage that would take years to repair. Due to the limited knowledge of geology at this time, Roman scholars were unable to make the connection between the earthquakes and the possible peril of a Mount Vesuvius eruption.(BBC) Some even argue that the people didn’t even know Vesuvius was a volcano. (Pompeii unplugged)

The social impacts of Mount Etna are considerably quite negative. Mount Etna’s most destructive eruption took place on March 8th,1699. It began with rumbling but after multiple eruptions over the period of the next few weeks the volcano managed to kill more than 20,000 people and left more than thousands of people homeless. Most of the victims could have saved themselves by fleeing, but stayed, in an attempt to save their city(Erupts,2018).