With reference to two volcanic events that you have studied from contrasting areas of the world, compare the nature of the volcanic hazard and its impact.

Tourism was a large part of the economy in many areas hit and with buildings destroyed and tourist having been killed the tourist industry took a big hit. This affected people’s ability to earn a living and an income to support their families. The fishing industry was also greatly affected with an estimated 100 000 fishing boats damaged or destroyed.

Assess the extent to which primary rather than secondary impacts are the more serious effects arising from volcanic eruptions. (30 marks)

The side of mt st Helens has been blown off by the force of the blast and trees have been demolished buy the rocks crashing at them

Analyse the factors that causes differences in the hazards posed by volcanoes around the world (40 marks)

A hazard can be define as something which poses a level of threat the life, health, property or environment, a volcano can compromise all these things through the many hazards volcanoes presents. Such as lahars, flash flooding, landslides, pyroclastic flows, ash clouds and many others. There are factors which can influence the severity of the hazard and cause differences in them and can be classified into different categories, such as physical, economic, political and social.

Imagine a single event that can kill 57 people and 7000 deer and elk. Snap trees like a toothpick, and turn the sky grey for 15 days. Now, stop imagining, Mount St. Helens, in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington State, erupted. On May 18th,1980. According to (Campbell 371), “At least $1 billion in economic damage was reported”. The eruption of Mount St. Helens took many lives, and devastated America. Mount St. Helens destroyed more than 230 square miles of ancient forest.

It was May 18th, 1980. The eruption of Mount St. Helens occurred in Washington,United States. The exact time it had happened is at 8:32:17. The eruption happened 96 miles out South of Seattle, Washington and 50 miles northeast of Portland,Oregon. Many people died during this time. About 50 people had died. 250 homes were destroyed. Along with 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, 185 miles of highway was also destroyed. Many tiny earthquakes had happened a couple days before the eruption had happened.

National parks and monuments that depended on the government were closed. Millions of dollars were lost because tourists were unable to explore the attractions which halted money that could have been spent at the parks and surrounding businesses as well. Hotels and

Mount St. Helen is a very active volcano classified as a stratovolcano, stratovolcano is basically a tall volcano built up of layer after layer of hard lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Mount St. Helens location is in Skamania County in Washington, with coordinates of 46 12'00.17"N122 11'21.13"W. Mount St Helen is famous because of its catastrophic eruption on May eighteenth in nineteen eighty. The eruption measured a five on the volcanic explosivity index. This is an index created by Chris Newell and Steven Self in the year nineteen eighty-two it was designed to try and measure the explosiveness of volcano eruptions to determine the value of the explosivity and qualitative observations ranging from zero to eight, eight being the

In the aftermath of this devastating event almost all of the trees have grown back. Lots of the plant life and grass is back becoming a very beautiful place again. Animals and people enjoy living there and visiting there. Now the bike trails and hiking paths have come back and is there for everyone to enjoy.

Mount St. Helens Location: Washington, United States Latitude: 46.20 N Longitude: 122.18 W height: 2,549 meters or 8,364 feet - 9,677 feet before May 18, 1980 Type: Stratovolcano Number of eruptions in past 200 years: 2-3 Latest Eruptions: Between 1660-1700, around 1800-1802, 1831, 1835, 1842-1844, 1847-1854, 1857, 1980-? Present thermal activity: strong steaming Nickname: Mount Fuji of the West Remarks: continuous intermittent activity since 1980 with occasional eruptions of steam and ash; occasional pyroclastic flows; intermittent dome forming. MSH is considered a young volcano that developed over the last 40,000 years and is one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Geologists predicted that the

The volcano continued to discharge an ash plume for hours after the lateral blast, rising over 20 km’s into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds blew over 500 million tons of ash across the United States reaching the east coast in 3 days and encompassing the globe in 15 days Regions as far as 400 km’s away were overwhelmed in complete darkness. Lakes, rivers, land, and the life they supported, appeared decimated. The familiar Pacific Northwest landscape was scoured of vegetation and buried under ash and pumice (USGS 2015).Mount St. Helens is located on a plate boundary where the oceanic plate (Juan de Fuca) meets the continental plate (North American) as seen in Figure 1 below. This boundary is part of the infamous Ring of Fire; a collection of volcanoes that form the margin around the Pacific Ocean. Mount St. Helens was created on a destructive margin where the Juan de Fuca plate subducts. Mount St. Helens is the youngest and most active of 13 volcanos in the Cascades and erupted last in 1857. The destructive nature of the margin between the two plates and the build up of pressure over 123 years is what caused this fierce 1980 eruption (Project Learning Tree, 2010). Rising temperatures due to the presence of magma and frictional effects, caused the crust to begin to melt, adding to the

Mt. St. Helens included many details on volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes spew hot, dangerous gasses, ash, and rock that is powerfully blasted. The most common death from volcanic blasts is suffocation. Volcanic eruption can result in threats to health. They can also cause other disasters such as floods, mudslides, power outages, and wild fires.

Mount Vesuvius developed inside the caldera of an older volcano. This volcano was known as Monte Somma. Monte Somma became active around 400,000 years ago. Only the northern side of Monte Somma is left, creating a wall-like ridge around the northern edge of Mount Vesuvius. This feature can be observed today at the site of Mount Vesuvius. The development of Vesuvius produced a volcanic complex consisting of the two volcanoes. (De Boer and Sanders, 2002)

Millions were made homeless by the huge waves that swept houses and cars away. It was estimated that the costs to repair all damage would be at approximately $5 billion.