Volcanism and Volcanic

Hazards
 Questions to think about
• Which is the most dangerous volcano in
the world?

• What group of people are most

endangered by volcanoes
 Summary
• What is a volcano?
• Where does lava come from and why do
volcanoes erupt?
• How is size quantified?
• Where are volcanoes occur?
• How frequently do volcanoes erupt?
• How do volcanoes cause damage?
 What is an volcano ?

An volcano is a mountain from which lava

and hot gasses erupt
But I have a semantic problem here …

• But I don’t like the word ‘mountain’,

because sometimes lava erupts from
places that have little, if any, topographic
relief

• And I don’t like the definition leaving out

the notion of temporal persistence, that the
eruptive activity is long-lasting
 So maybe I should use the phrase …
Volcanic Center

• A region of the earth in which lava and hot

gasses have persistently erupted from the
ground over many thousands, or even
millions, of years.

• A single volcanic center may include

several related and closely-spaced
volcanoes, or it may contain none.
Why do Volcanoes Erupt ?
 What is Magma ?
• Molten rock with in earth
– Chemical composition matters!
Low silica rocks (e.g. basalts) very fluid
High silica rocks (e.g. rhyolites) very viscous

– Concentration of gasses (main H20 and CO2)

matters!
Gasses under pressure cause explosions
Gasses are poisonous
Volcano Size

The Volcanic Explosivity

Index, or VEI, was
proposed in 1982 as a
way to describe the
relative size or magnitude
of explosive volcanic
eruptions. It is a 0-to-8
index of increasing
explosivity. Each increase
in number represents an
increase around a factor
of ten. The VEI uses
several factors to assign a
number, including volume
of erupted pyroclastic
material (for example,
ashfall, pyroclastic flows,
and other ejecta), height
of eruption column,
duration in hours, and
qualitative descriptive
terms.
V Descriptio Plume Classificatio
Volume How often Example
EI n Height n
non-
0 < 100 m 1000s m3 Hawaiian daily Kilauea
explosive
Haw/Strombol
1 gentle 100-1000 m 10,000s m3 daily Stromboli
ian
1,000,000s Strom/Vulcani
2 explosive 1-5 km weekly Galeras, 1992
m3 an
10,000,000s
3 severe 3-15 km Vulcanian yearly Ruiz, 1985
m3
100,000,000s Galunggung,
4 cataclysmic 10-25 km Vulc/Plinian 10's of years
m3 1982
St. Helens,
5 paroxysmal >25 km 1 km3 Plinian 100's of years
1981
Plin/Ultra-
6 colossal >25 km 10s km3 100's of years Krakatau, 1883
Plinian
super- 1000's of
7 >25 km 100s km3 Ultra-Plinian Tambora, 1815
colossal years
mega- 10,000's of Yellowstone, 2
8 >25 km 1,000s km3 Ultra-Plinian
colossal years Ma
Global distribution of Volcanoes

About 1500 volcanoes worldwide

 How long do eruptions
last?
1000
• Most eruptions
last 10 - 1000
Eruptions

600
days
• Less than 20%
200 over within 72
hours
• Median is 7
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
weeks (1176
Duration (days) hours)
 How Often do Eruptions Occur?
With eruptive volumes equal to or
Cumulative number of eruptions

Eruptions obey Gutenberg-Richter

Greater than the given amount

Statistics: lots of small ones, just

a few big ones.

The graph at the left are for

Explosive eruptions in Kamchatka
During the last 10,000 years
 Divergent Plate Boundaries
Mid-ocean ridges
strong mantle upwelling to ‘fill in hole’, so
lots of basaltic magmatism (almost all of
which is under water)

Continental Rifting
Thicker crust suppresses mantle melting
somewhat, but can add volatiles
 Convergent Plate Boundaries
Subduction Zones
dewatering of subducted lithosphere (string at
100-150 km depth) suppresses the melting point
of mantle rock to produce basaltic magma

Continental Collision
Strong thickening of crust can cause once-
shallow, water-rich crustal rocks to be buried.
They can heat up and melt to produce granitic
melts
 Mantle Plumes
Oceanic Hotspots
rising mantle plumes lead to melting that
produces basaltic magmas and Hawaii-
type volcanic islands

Continental Hotspots
Thick lithosphere leads to greater degree
of chemical variability, broader range of
lava types.
 Hazard 1: Lava Inundation
(rare, but it happens)

Case of Goma, Congo

a city with a population 500,000, located
near Rwanda border, on shore of Lake
Kivu, affected by lava from Nyiragongo
Volcano

Jan 17, 2002, 45 people died, 50,000

displaced. Eruptions with deaths in 1977,
too.
African Rift
Valley

Continental
Divergent
Plate
Boundary
Nyiragongo Volcano
City of
Goma

Lake
Kivu
Lava from Nyiragongo volcano,
inundates Goma, Congo
Goma airport closed by lava flow
 Reasons for deaths
Burns from coming in contact with lava or
hot rock, or from buildings set afire.

High concentrations of poison gases that are

being emitted from the lava.

Destruction of infrastructure that supplies

vital services (water, etc)
Hazard 2: Mudflow = Lahar

Mt. Rainier, Washington State

Lots of water locked up in that

summit glacier …
 Crate Lake, Oregon
lots of water in that lake ...
Tacoma, Wa

If all that ice

on Mt. Ranier
suddenly
melted, where
would the
water and
mud go?
 Nevado del Ruis Volcano
Note glacier at summit, valley that channels water
Part of town that was in river valley
Was innundated by several meters
of mud
 Reason for Deaths

Being buried alive in thick, gooey mud

 Hazard 3: Pyroclastic Flow
= Nuee’ Ardente

Hot gasses and dust “burp” out of the

volcano’s summit and cascade downhill at
speeds of 50-100 mph.
 St. Pierre, Martinique
• Town of 29,000 people on the shore of a
volcanic island in the Carribean
• May 8, 1902: Pyroclastic flow from Mt.
Pele volcano destroys the entire town,
leaning only 1 survivor (a guy in jail)
Martinique
May 8, 1902:
Pyroclastic flow
Destroying the
town of St. Pierre
St. Pierre
After the
Pyroclastic flow
(Aside) … The famous Pelean Spine,
350 meters high, was a rock spire
that was pushed up out
Of the crater of Mt. Pele in 1902 as
new lava rose beneath the volcano.
 Hazard 4: Tsunami
Explosive volcanism at volcanic island
caused a tsunami in nearby water

Local tsunamis, like the one following the

Krakatau eruption, are the most common.
But ocean-crossing tsunamis are possible.
The ca. 1625 BCE eruption of the Agean
island of Thera is an example.
Krakatau
Note location of
volcano: island in
center of narrow
straight between
two populated land
masses, Java and
Sumatra
• August 27, 1883:

extremely large explosion

collapse of the volcanic edifice
30 meter high tsunami hits coast of
Java and Sumatra, killing
36,000 people
165 villages totally destroyed
Steamship washed
Inland by 1883
tsunami
 Reasons for Deaths

drowning

Being crushed by floating debris

 Hazard 5: Ash Falls
volcanic ash = fine rock particles

Ash falls over broad area, like snow

weight of ash collapses house
ash makes road impassible
ash-covered grass poisonous
to livestock (e.g. Iceland, 1783)
larger chucks of rock (=bombs) also fall
 Luzon, Phillipines
• Near Mt Pinatubo
• 800 people killed by housing collapse
when ash covered their houses
• Plenty of warning, but ash does not initially
appear all that dangerous. But wait till it’s
a meter thick! An it becomes very heavy
and slick during the rain!
Ash Plume from Mt. Pinatubo
Ash covered houses near Mt. Pinatubo
 Hazard 6: Global Cooling

Aerosols (particularly sulfate) injected high is the atmosphere

reflect sunlight back to space, resulting in net cooling of the
Earth’s surface

Unseasonably cold temperatures case crop failures

1816: The Year without a Summer
June 9-10, 1816: On the 9th, frost
was reported as far south as
Worcester, Massachusetts and on
the 10th to East Windsor,
Connecticut.

July 6, 1816: Temperatures in the

40’s F range were reported in
Connecticut at both Hartford and
New Haven. Robbins in East
Windsor noted temperatures
almost cold enough for a frost.
Tambora volcano (Sumbawa,
Indonesia)

Extremely large VEI=6

eruption in 1815.

May have been the

Largest in 10,000 years

Perhaps 90,000 people

Died worldwide, from
starvation
 People and Volcanoes
Very local hazards
Lava inundation
pyroclastic flow

regional hazards
mudflow
Explosion induced tsunami

global hazards
Global cooling
Chemical pollution by ash
Island collapse
 Questions to think about
• Which is the most dangerous volcano in
the world?
• Versuvio, because of its proximity to Naples, Italy
• And because of the very large eruption that
occurred in 79 CE

• What group of people are most

endangered by volcanoes
• Volcanologists … I know several of whom have
died, and nearly all of us have had close calls
The impact of volcanic eruptions
Volcanic Hazards
Lava flows
 

Commonly destroy property in Hawaii and Iceland.

Damage limited to the vicinity in the immediate area

of the volcano.

Fatalities rare due to

slow speed of
advancing lava flow.
Ash fall
Extensive property damage and fatalities can result
from heavy ash falls.
Significant ash in the upper atmosphere can circle
the globe in a matter of weeks.
More than 80 commercial jets have been damaged
by flying through volcanic ash clouds.

Mt. St. Helens’ ash

cloud
An ashfall 10 million years ago killed these rhinos that are preserved at Ashfall Fossil
Beds State Historic Park, Nebraska.

Death was not by burial but by lung failure due to inhaling the ash.
Pyroclastic flows
Lahars are fast moving mudflows that can inundate
urban areas that are nearby the eruption.

Lahars can also dam rivers and which can lead to

extensive flooding.
Lahars can be the most devastating outcome of
many volcanoes.
A relatively small eruption of Nevada del Ruiz,
Columbia, in 1985, generated a lahar when the
volcano melted a 2.5 km2 area of snow and ice.

Water and debris rushed down the slopes, picking

up more debris along the way.
 A 5 metre wall of
water and debris
slammed into the
town of Amero, 72
km from the
volcano.

The lahar killed

28,700 people and
destroyed over
5,000 structures in
the city.
uée ardentes destroy life and property in their paths

60 people, thousands of animals and fish, and

hundreds of acres of lumber were destroyed by
ash flows from Mt. St. Helens.

A Nuée Ardent killed 20,000 people when Mt.

Vesuvius exploded and shed a pyroclastic flow
across the village of Pompeii in 79 AD.
People and animals
died instantly from
the rushing cloud of
hot gas and ash.
 Landslides

Landslides can be generated when a volcano

collapses during an eruption.

During the Mt. St. Helens eruption 2.3 km3 of debris

slid down the mountain at speeds up to 240 km/hr.

he slide traveled over 24 km and left a 45 m deep depos

350,000 years ago Mt. Shasta experienced a similar

eruption and landslide that was 20 times greater than
that of Mt. St. Helens.
Volcanic Gases
In addition to making magma more explosive, volcanic eruptions also include
gases that can be deadly to all life.

CO2, SO2 and CO are the most abundant of harmful gases.

SO2 emissions can have direct effects on life in the
vicinity of a volcano.

An eruption in 1783 of Laki Crater (Iceland)

produced a sulfurous haze that lasted for 9 months
and killed 75% of all livestock and 24% of the
Icelandic population.
Volcanoes release more than 130 to 230 million
tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year

Humans add CO2 at the rate of approximately 22

billion tonnes per year (150 times the rate of
volcanic production)
Human CO2 production is equal to that if 17,000
volcanoes like Kilauea were erupting every year.
Mammoth Mountain is a
relatively young volcano
that is emitting large
volumes of CO2.

Gas concentrations in the soil in some

areas near the mountain are high enough
to kill trees and small animals.
If the air that we breath has more than 10% CO2 it
becomes deadly because it displaces the Oxygen
that we need for respiration.
Lake Nios, Cameroon, is a very deep lake within a
volcanic crater.
The lake is so deep that hydrostatic pressure forces
CO2 to remain at the lake bottom.

When the pressure of the CO2 exceeds a certain

limit the gas rapidly bubbles up out of the lake and
flows as an invisible gas cloud down the adjacent
slopes.
On August 61, 1986 such a gas release flowed 19 km
suffocating 1,700 people along its route.
 Lake Nyos 10 days
after the 1986
eruption

The fountain in the

background lifts
CO2 up to the
surface so that it no
longer accumulates.
Tsunamis

Caused by the displacement of seawater by

eruptions of volcanic islands and submarine
volcanoes.
Krakatoa (1883 eruption) killed 36,000 people by
the tsunami, alone (the most deadly outcome of
the eruption).

This is the newly forming

summit of Krakatoa, growing
where the 1883 eruption
blew the top off of the
original volcano.
Global Climate Change

Due to ash and gas that may spend years in the

upper atmosphere; reduces incoming solar
radiation.
SO2 from an eruption forms tiny droplets of sulfuric
acid in the upper atmosphere.

The droplets significantly increase global

albedo…..a negative radiative forcing that leads to
cooling.
Mt. Pinatubo (1991) released 22 million metric tons
of SO2 and reduced the Earth’s average temperature
by 0.5 degrees Celsius in the year following the
eruption.