Volcanism and Volcanic Hazards

Bill Menke September 21, 2005

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 dont like the word mountain, because sometimes lava erupts from places that have little, if any, topographic relief And I dont 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 EI 0 1 2 3 4

Descriptio n nonexplosive gentle explosive severe cataclysmic

Plume Height < 100 m 100-1000 m 1-5 km 3-15 km 10-25 km

Volume 1000s m3 10,000s m3 1,000,000s m3 10,000,000s m3 100,000,000s m3

Classification Hawaiian Haw/Stromboli an Strom/Vulcani an Vulcanian Vulc/Plinian

How often daily daily weekly yearly 10's of years

Example Kilauea Stromboli Galeras, 1992 Ruiz, 1985 Galunggung, 1982 St. Helens, 1981 Krakatau, 1883 Tambora, 1815

5
6 7 8

paroxysmal
colossal supercolossal

>25 km
>25 km >25 km >25 km

1 km3
10s km3 100s km3 1,000s km3

Plinian
Plin/UltraPlinian Ultra-Plinian Ultra-Plinian

100's of years
100's of years 1000's of years

megacolossal

10,000's of years

Yellowstone, 2 Ma

Global distribution of Volcanoes

About 1500 volcanoes worldwide

How long do eruptions last?

1000

Eruptions 600 200

0.1

10 100 1000 10000

Duration (days)

Most eruptions last 10 - 1000 days Less than 20% over within 72 hours Median is 7 weeks (1176 hours)

How Often do Eruptions Occur?

Cumulative number of eruptions With eruptive volumes equal to or Greater than the given amount Eruptions obey Gutenberg-Richter 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 onceshallow, 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 Hawaiitype 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 volcanos 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 its 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 Earths 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 40s 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