Cause and Effect Essay on Volcano

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Introduction

This report is meant to investigate whether all seismic events have the same cause and effect as the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. The second seismic event chosen to compare whether the same causes and effects are common with eruptions is Mount Ontake. The theory of plate tectonics is the idea that the crust of the earth is divided into separate sections that create a shell from the mantle. The theory was brought to scientists attention by Alfred Wegener when he recorded earthquake and volcano positioning. He found the locations created a type of boundary that could be defined as sections or tectonic plates. He also believed that when the tectonic plates moved, they caused continental drift from a theoretical past supercontinent. The theory also created an explanation for natural disasters by looking at the plate’s movements and classifying them according to their movements – transform, convergent, and divergent.

Causes

The volcano (Eyjafjallajökull) is situated on a divergent boundary and is a strato volcano that is built by many layers of lava and ash. The volcano was formed by water being converted into a gas. The explosion was caused by the common magma inside the volcano meeting with silica-rich magma. In contrast, the Honshu volcano is on the boundaries of the Phillippe, Eurasian, and Pacific tectonic plates and the boundary is convergent. The Honshu volcano is a complex volcano which uses water to form its shape. The cause of the Honshu eruption was the opening of a vertical crack of previously intact rock which led to the instant boiling of groundwater. By looking at the way the events occurred a hydrothermal explosion seems to do more damage than 2 different chambers of magma joining

Effects

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano was higher than the Honshu volcano on the volcano explosiveness index, but it had no death toll compared to Honshu which had 63. This is because the area around the volcano was uninhabited as opposed to in Japan where the volcano was situated close to a town. For the cost of the explosion, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano cost a total of 1.7 billion dollars in airline costs as its close to Europe. There was also an ongoing cost of over 3.8 million dollars per year in import and export costs, but for Honshu, it only cost 100 million dollars as the explosion was smaller and further away from larger cities.

Secondary

The Honshu volcano was a famous tourist attraction where people could climb its sides. When it erupted it caused people to become trapped and this killed 63 people. The Ontake volcano had an explosiveness index of 2. The Ontake also had an ash cloud that reached 11km above sea level. The Ontake volcano also had a mudflow which was caused by the volcano eruption. The Ontake eruption lasted 7 days. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption ash cloud reached 10km above sea level and had an explosiveness index of 4. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption also caused flooding. The eruption lasted 6 days.

Trends

The common trends found were the time the eruptions lasted and how high the ash cloud went into the atmosphere. The eruption length was only one day off for the other this means that it is more likely that strato volcanos have an eruption time that is close to a week. The ash cloud height also shows that even though the volcanos had a difference in the explosiveness index it had an ash cloud height that nearly reached the same height.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the earthquake of Mount Ontake did not have the same cause of explosion as the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. The Ontake eruption was caused by water pressure being instantly built up while the Eyjafjallajökull eruption was caused by mixing magma with silica magma. The Ontake eruption was able to do lots of damage to structures in the area but it did not cause as much a cost as the Eyjafjallajökull eruption as airlines were not heavily affected. Therefore the two volcanoes had unique characteristics for different aspects of their explosions.

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    5. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/monitoring-eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull-eruption

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