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Impacts of volcanic hazards
Environmental impact of volcanoes
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Volcanic Eruptions and Global Climate Change
Abstract
There has been much debate in recent decades over how much volcanic eruptions contribute to global climate change, the destruction of the ozone layer, and global warming. This electronic term paper deals with various sides of this debate. There will be a specific focus on the great nineteenth century eruptions of Tambora and Krakatoa.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Effects of Volcanoes on the Earth Systems in General
The 18-- Eruption of Tambora and its Effects on the Earth Systems
The 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa and its Effects on the Earth Systems
Why Some Scientists are Saying that Volcanoes Do Not Have a Great Effect on
Global Change
Conclusion
References
Introduction
Since the beginning of time, volcanoes have been erupting on Earth. Millions of years ago, they created the continents, and the gases they produced condensed in the atmosphere to rain and form the oceans. Today, volcanic eruptions are some of the most feared natural disasters on the face of our planet. Their destructive forces are powerful enough to wipe out entire cities and kill countless numbers of people and wildlife. There are, however, other effects of volcanic eruptions that we don't hear about on the news. One eruption actually has the power to decrease the temperature all over the globe and create a dust cloud that could linger as long as five years. Magma also contains gases that make a small but significant contribution to ozone depletion. The gargantuan eruptions of Tambora and Krakatoa in the nineteenth century, which will soon be discussed, are great examples of how volcanic eruptions affect global climate change.
The Effects of Volcanoes on the Earth S...
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Available from: http://netsurf.geo.mtu.edu/~ekc/climate_volc2.html.
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There are many pro’s for attempting to forecast an earthquake or volcano. Forecasting an earthquake or eruption saves lives and property, mainly by preparation, as there is no way to prevent these events with today technology.
The rest of this article spends time speculating through the advances in technology and the reanalyzation of old evidence to determine various cataclysmic events that happened millions of years ago. There are many sections in this article that discuss the methods used to determine the closet possible dates and the sequence in which they follow. There are also sections in this article which discuss methods used for the evidence of impact, eruption and how reading the environmental changes can help paleontologists determine conclusions and narrow the perspectives of paleontologists (scientists) and popular culture as a whole.
Mount Tambora, located on the Island of Sumbawa, Indonesia is classified as a Stratovolcano. Also known as a composite volcano, Tambora is a tall conical volcano (cone like structure) where layers of the walls are built by hardened lava and volcanic ash. The term composite is used to describe the volcano due to the composite layered structure built from sequential outpourings of eruptive materials1. Among the most common types of volcanoes, Tambora also shares its destructive prowess with best-known volcanoes such as Krakota (1883) and Vesuvius (79 A.D). The Island of Sumbawa is located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain (a group of islands in the southern Maritime Southeast Asia) and is in the province of West Nusa Tenggara3. A map of Mount Tambora is shown in Figure 1 to provide a better perspective of its location. Interestingly enough, Tambora forms its own peninsula on Sumbawa, known as the Sanggar Peninsula. In April of 1815, after years of dormancy, Mount Tambora erupted with great intensity, approximately 7 on the volcanic explosivity index, which is shown in Figure 2. It has been estimated that the eject volume of Tambora was 160 cubic kilometres, which represents the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The death toll has been projected to be at least 71,000 people, of who over 15% were killed directly from the eruption1. The remaining 75% have been thought to succumb to starvation and disease, as the eruptive fallout decimated the agricultural industry in the region. Following the eruption, a volcanic winter ensued. As sun become less abundant due to clouds of ash, crops and livestock perished. Please note that all definitions appearing in the footnotes are either taken from already referenced so...
Volcanoes have always been a mysterious wonder of the world. Volcanoes have shaped the landscape and the very ground that we all live on. People have written stories of their disastrous eruptions, and painted their marvelous shapes on canvas. The essay will outline some of the more famous volcanoes and how they have impacted are history. Mount Vesuvius that destroy the great city of Pompeii, Krakatoa they spewed deadly ash on small village town, and Mount St. Helen, the only volcano in my own country to every erupt during my own time period.
The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were 15 times higher than they are today and this was due to the volcanic activity, which released enormous amount of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. The flooding of continents and the lack of plants on land also contributed to the heightened levels. These conditions created a greenhouse effect so tempera...
Volcanoes can be one of the most destructive forces on Earth. It is estimated that some
In theory some parts of the world might benefit, from a human point of view, due to global warming. However, at current rates of warming, local ecosystems will collapse and any objective measure of global benefits versus suffering would show much more suffering than benefits gained.
From modern examples and records we know that volcanic activity can set of a chai...
"Massive Volcanic Eruptions Could Have Killed Off the Dinosaurs." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 15 Dec. 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Also known as, strato-volcanoes, these volcanoes are the biggest and most majestic of the three types of volcanoes. Most of the composite volcanoes are situated on Pacific Ocean, in an area known as the “Ring of Fire” (Lutgens. F, Tarbuck. E. pp-238-239 2014). Composite volcanoes are composed of silica-rich magma, which has an andesitic composition. This along with occasionally having various amounts of basaltic lava and pyroclastic felsic lava causes a thick viscous lava that does not travel more than a few kilometers. Composite volcanoes are known as having very explosive eruptions. This is why composite volcanoes can be the most dangerous. Composite volcanoes like Fujiyama in Japan, and Italy’s Etna are both composite volcanoes. Mt. St. Helens is another example of a composite volcano. Its eruption in 1980 leveled may trees in the forest and filled in with magma a lake that was beside the giant symmetrical volcano that is Mt. St. Helens (Lutgens. F, Tarbuck. E. pp-238-239 2014). Much like St. Helens, Mt. Vesuvius is a composite volcano. These volcanoes need to be studied in order to understand how and when they may erupt. If we can further understand these giant volcanoes, we may be able to save people in the future. Pants and vegetation are important, however, volcanic eruptions and their damages to vegetation and trees have been an ongoing phenomenon. It has also been shown that after
Climate change is evidenced through shifts in the weather patterns such as winds, humidity and temperatures over certain durations. Natural climate changes occur less frequently and they are triggered by factors related geographical aspects as well as solar radiation. The earth’s movement on the orbit triggers changes in climate causing some areas to have higher temperatures than usual while others are significantly cold depending on the position of the earth on the orbit. The heat form the sun causes changes on the stratospheric ozone and it increases the amount of greenhouse gases. Heat from the oceanic crust also contributes to warming as a result of episodic hydrothermal venting (Liao & Sandeberg, 2012). Volcanic activity also causes a release of certain elements that may block the sun and also contribute to increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
This is based upon the sunlight and volcano eruptions which plays an extreme factor. "Most often, global climate has changed because of variations from sunlight. Tiny wobbles in Earth’s orbit altered when and where sunlight falls on Earth’s surface. Variations in the Sun itself have alternately increased and decreased the amount of solar energy reaching Earth. Volcanic eruptions have generated particles that reflect sunlight, brightening the planet and cooling the climate. Volcanic activity has also, in the deep past, increased greenhouse gases over millions of years, contributing to episodes of global warming." (Global Warming, web.) However, I firmly believe that climate change is not only the result of natural causes alone. I think it is man-made and the major factors are from CO2, factories, and power plants burning coal/ oil, natural gas.
There are other short-term effects, and these effects don’t just take place in the area of an eruption, but expands to other parts of the world. Globally, what has become an issue of its own is climate change. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, Jackson (2013) defined climate change as a “periodic modification of Earth's climate brought about as a result of changes in the atmosphere as well as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system.” With all of the debris that enters the atmosphere from eruptions, volcanoes can make an impact on climate change. Volcanic activity can cause global cooling, but some sources say that it has the potential to impact global warming as well, due to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO...
Volcanoes are mountains with a large pool of magma. When pressure builds up the magma and lava spews out, this is called a volcanic eruption. So, how are volcanoes formed?