Describe a specific eruption. What happened before during and after the eruption

Question

Describe a specific eruption. What happened before during and after the eruption? Was the eruption a surprise? Why or why not? What was the VEI? How did the geologic setting affect the VEI? What type of volcano was responsible? What causes the most damage or deaths (lahars, ash, landslides, pyroclastic flows) during and after the eruption? Why? What was the eruption history of that area? What would you have done as a policy maker to save lives and or property before the eruption? Describe a mass movement, where are they most common and why.

Explanation / Answer

Mt Pinatubo, Philippines on June 15,19991 is the second largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century and the among the deadliest volcanic eruption which affected a large number of population. This is an active stratovolcano which is located in the southern parts of the Luzon Island of Philippines. The effect of this volcanic eruption was felt worldwide. This volcanic eruption release tons of 10km3 of magma, millions tons of sulphur dioxide was released into the atmosphere. The release of SO2 causes the ozone depletion and the temperature was reduced globally. The volcano also erupted thick sheets of tephra, pyroclastic flows and lahars which caused a great damage to the economy of city and its surrounding areas. More than 7000 people were killed and thousands become homeless due to this.

This volcano originated with the series of earthquakes, minor ash explosion and pyroclastic flows. This volcanic activity continued about more than 2 months which gets culminated into the deadliest volcano of Pinatubo on June 15,1991. After more than 15 hours the ash plumes reached a height of 30 km in the air. Within 10 days this formed a continous band of clouds in the sky which extends from Southeast Asia to Central Africa. On june 15,1991 the violent eruption of magma causes the summit of volcano to collapse in the underlying magma chamber.

The VEI or the volcanic explosivity index of the Pinatubo volcano is 6. The damage was caused mainly due to lahars. Lahars are the mudflow caused by the torrential rain which mobilise the debris. This mudflow killed many people and animals and buried several homes after the eruption.

Mt. Pinatubo give several warning prior to its eruption. There were several eruptions prior which indicates the reawakening of a dormant volcano. As a policy maker the warning system should be strengthened and proper evacuation and mitigation programmes should be implemented to save lives in the eruption.

Mass movement is the sudden movement of geological material under the influence of gravity. Rocks slides are the most common type of landslide and mass movement. They are caused mainly in hilly regions with unstable slopes. This unstability is caused due to oversteepened drainages and canyons.

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