Volcanic activity and its Sustainability

This essay explores the sustainability of volcanic activity and its negative impact on the environment. It also discusses recent examples of volcanic eruptions and their impact on human life and property. The essay highlights the need for accurate media representation of volcanic disasters to avoid misconceptions and promote better understanding of the environmental damage caused by volcanic activities.

Essay -
Volcanic activity
and its
Sustainability

Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................1
2 MAIN BODY ...............................................................................................................................1
3 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................5
4 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................6

1 INTRODUCTION
Organic phenomenons also contribute to climate damage and negatively impact on
sustainability of the planet. Volcanic eruptions are some of the most disastrous natural
phenomenons and violent volcanic eruptions can also lead to loss of life on a massive scale. This
essay looks at natural phenomenon of volcanic eruption with focus on sustainability of this
natural phenomenon. Examples highlighting the negative environmental impact of Volcanic
activities are also included in this essay. Finally the depiction of natural disasters in mainstream
media and their impact on audience perspectives is also provided in this essay.
2 MAIN BODY
Volcanos are formed when tectonic plates diverge or converge. Mantle is layer of the
planet which is between thin crust surface and molten iron core. The mantle is formed of solid
rocks. Volcanic eruption occurs when rock from the mantle melts and moves towards the surface
of the earth (Hayes and et. al., 2020). After melting the rising mantle is called magma and runny
magma erupts through vents in earths surface and flows on the surface as lava.
Explosive volcanic eruption occurs when magma is thick and gas bubbles cannot easily
escape as it moves towards the surface. This creates pressure which leads to explosive eruption
of magma. Another type of volcanic activity happens when water under the surface of the earth
interacts with magma and generates steam. This leads to pressure generation which can cause
massive explosions.
There are about 1500 potentially active volcanoes which can cause huge environmental
and human damage upon eruption. Volcanic activity is dangerous to human life and natural
stability and between the years 1998-2017, volcanic activities and wildfires impacted 6.2 million
individuals globally being cause of 2400 deaths in the time period (Volcanic Erruptions, 2022).
Volcanic eruptions are considered natural disasters and have caused huge amount of damage in
the past. Populous areas are not settled near areas which have potential volcanic activities
because sudden volcanic eruptions can create a life threatening scenario which can lead to human
suffering and deaths on a large scale.
A recent example of volcanic eruption causing mass damage is the La Soufrière or
Soufrière Saint Vincent in the Caribbean. Saint Vincent volcano is an active volcano located at
the Carribbean Island of Saint Vincent and Grenadines. The volcano has been the cause of
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natural disaster in the past. The volcanic eruption of 1902 is considered one of the most
dangerous volcanic eruption of recent history as it killed 1,680 people, injured 600 people and
resulted in homelessness for 6000 people. In the year 2021, one again volcanic activity at Saint
Vincent created dangerous natural scenario for locals living in the area.
On April 8 2021, the rising volcanic and seismic activity in the area reached a level for
the at which red alert needed to be issued in the area and the locals were evacuated to safety. On
9th April, high volcanic activity of preceding days led to volcanic eruption which blackened parts
of the area with ash and smoke. Local life was disrupted as many had to evacuate their homes
and volcanic ash damaged the city infrastructure. Kingstown which is the capital of the area, was
completely evacuated and many individuals have to had to leave their property and belongings
which suffered huge damage (Ash falls like snow after St Vincent volcano eruption, 2021).
Papa New Guinea is an island country in the south-pacific region with strong history of
volcanic activities disrupting daily lives of individuals and threatening safety of local population.
The country has seen some of the violent volcanic activities in history and has number of active
volcanos which can cause huge eruption activity. Some of the most dangerous active volcanos
located in the island country are Ullawun, Garbuna Group, Langila, Rabaul and Kordovo. These
volcanic islands have caused death and suffering on a massive scale such as the eruption of
Ullawun in the year 2002 where the ash eruptions of the volcanic activity were visible from
GMS satellite images. This was considered a natural disaster of high magnitude and there are
many such volcanos present in the country which can create historical natural disaster in the area.
There was also a recent incident in Papa New Guinea of Volcanic eruption at Kadovar
which resulted in displacement of 500 people to nearby Blup Blup Island (Papua New Guinea
volcano: Islanders flee worsening eruption, 2018). The volcanic activity occurred in 2018 and
included large violent eruptions from the volcano. The Volcanic activity in the Kodovar Island
was not expected as there was not case of large volcanic activity in the Island in the past years. In
addition to this it was detected that large amount of Sulphur dioxide was released in the
environment because of the volcanic activity. The aftermath of a violent volcanic eruption has
disastrous impact for some time period as the local area becomes harmful and unfit for the local
population. The population at Kodovar Island faced difficulties in gaining basic resources for
survival after the destruction of their homes due to Volcanic eruption.
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In context of sustainability, volcanic eruptions cause environmental damage as volcanic
activity leads to release of toxic gases in the environment such as carbon dioxide, sulphur
dioxide gas, hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide along
with volatile metal chloride. These toxic gasses are released on a mass scale and affect the
nearby environment to more than 30 kilometre approximately. However. Danger from a large
volcanic activity can also reach to radius of more than 150 kilometres.
The toxic gases which are released at large scale by volcanic eruptions have the potential
to cause global warming. In addition to this volcanic eruptions contribute to lowering
sustainability by causing secondary natural disasters such as wildfires, landslides, storms,
tsunamis, floods and mudslides. A recent example of volcanic activity creating secondary natural
disaster is Tonga volcanic eruption which covered the pacific Islands in ashes and triggered a
Tsunami in the region (Australian minister says Tonga suffered ‘significant damage’ following
volcano eruption, 2022). Volcanic activities need to be monitored so that mass causalities
because of Volcanic eruptions can be avoided and prevention measures can be implemented to
reduce unsustainable impact of sudden Volcanic activities.
Media coverage and mainstream representation of natural disasters such as Volcanos has
been unfair with much focus on sensationalism instead of depicting scientific facts about natural
disasters. Pop-culture and mainstream media outlets have created many uninformed labels about
volcanos and volcanic activities which misleads people into making wrong assumptions about a
Volcanic disaster. Scientific facts are mostly not covered in media representation of Volcanos
and audience does not have basic information about how Volcanos are formed and what happens
after a Volcanic eruption. Images and videos associated with reporting of Volcanic disaster in
media often leads to audience getting misinformed perspective about Volcanic eruptions.
Common images about Volcanic eruption can lead audiences to believe that volcanic
plume such as ash, smoke and toxic gasses are also erupted from the Volcano while these
environment changes cause because of Volcanic eruption and are not directly erupted from
Volcanos (Giacomelli and Scandone, 2021). This kind of misinformation can reduce the
audience from effectively understanding the environmental damage caused by Volcanic
eruptions which also leads to human suffering. In addition to this limited reporting of Volcanic
disaster in media which does not go into details to inform the audience scientifically accurate
version of the disaster also creates misconception such as lava is boiling. The scientifically
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accurate depiction of Volcanos helps the audience learn that bubbles in Lava are formed because
of toxic gases erupting from the Volcano and is not associated with the temperature of the
Volcano.
The lack of accurate representation of Volcanic natural disasters in media influencing
scientific facts leads to distortion of audience perspectives about the environmental harm caused
by active Volcanos and the level of danger communities face while living near such Volcanos.
The focus on predicting volcanic activities is also falsely reported in media as scientists use other
techniques to understand volcanic activity. It is important that such type of misconceptions are
cleared through better media reporting in the current digital age as it can help further actions in
reducing environmental damage of Volcano and support communities which are suffering from
Volcanic activities.
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3 CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is concluded that Volcanic activities are highly
unsustainable and damaging to the environment. In addition to this, Volcanic activities also
cause property damage and loss of life This is because of releasee of toxic elements in the
environment and can also trigger secondary natural disasters. The environmental impacts created
by Volcanic activities lead also affects human population in the area. Recent Volcanic eruptions
in Papa New Guinea and Saint Vincent in the Caribbean showcase that populations face various
challenges because of Volcanic eruptions such as displacement from their homeland, lack of
resources for survival and danger to personal property.
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4 REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Giacomelli, L. and Scandone, R., 2021. Volcanic phenomena between media simplification and
the need for a better understanding of human-environment interaction, with particular
reference to Italy. J-READING Journal of reasearch and didatics in Geography, 1.
Hayes and et. al., 2020. Developing a suite of multi-hazard volcanic eruption scenarios using an
interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 392.
p.106763.
Online
Ash falls like snow after St Vincent volcano eruption, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-56704752>
Australian minister says Tonga suffered ‘significant damage’ following volcano eruption, 2022.
[Online] Available through
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/17/australian-minister-says-tonga-
suffered-significant-damage-following-volcano-eruption?
CFID=1154667&CFTOKEN=312a65a7604b65f-F7A69E3E-B964-9D9A-
6884E0BB330E9AC9>
Papua New Guinea volcano: Islanders flee worsening eruption, 2018. [Online] Available through
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42680235>
Volcanic Erruptions, 2022. [Online] Available through
<https://www.who.int/health-topics/volcanic-eruptions#tab=tab_1>
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