Volcanic Eruptions: Causes, Effects, and Mitigation Efforts

This article discusses the causes, effects, and mitigation efforts of volcanic eruptions. It covers the process of how volcanoes work, the causes and effects of volcanic eruptions, long-term impacts to the Earth, problems it poses to humans, economic impacts, and mitigation efforts. The article also includes references for further reading.

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Table of Contents
How the Process Works.............................................................................................................2
Causes and Effects.....................................................................................................................3
Causes....................................................................................................................................3
Effects....................................................................................................................................3
Long-Term Impacts to the Earth................................................................................................4
Problems It Poses To Humans...................................................................................................5
Economic Impacts..................................................................................................................6
Mitigation Efforts...................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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How the Process Works
The natural phenomenon where a rupture is created on the surface of the earth crust or
crust or any planets through which hot molten materials can come out of the surface from the
inner layers of the planetary of object is known as volcano. All the planets including the earth
has various layers in it. The upper most layer of earth is known as the earth crust. All animals
and creature lives on the surface of the earth crust. There are possibilities that there are
ruptures and openings through which may be connected to the inner layers of the earth
surface. The second layer which is also known as the mantle is the layer where all kinds of
hot materials including hot materials like gases and molten rocks or lava is located. These
materials may be coming out through these apertures and these apertures usually form
mountains or hills because of the accumulation of the molten materials on the earth surface
surrounding the region (Pyle, 2015). This is known as volcano. Volcanos are found in various
regions of the earth including the equatorial countries.
The volcanic openings are mainly found in the regions where the tectonic plates of the
earth are converging with each other or they are diverging (Sigl et al., 2015) The earth is
composed of various tectonic plates which are floating on the softer layer which is known as
the mantle formed of hot molten materials like lava and molten rock. These tectonic plates
converge or diverge because these float around. The regions of tension where such
convergence or divergence occurs is known to form volcanos as these regions become
weaker and tension is created in these regions. There are possibilities of volcanoes beneath
the water surfaces like the oceans or the seas. The volcanic eruptions in these regions or earth
quake causes natural phenomenon known as Tsunami. There are situations on the earth
surface where the earth crust becomes thin and weak. The openings may be formed in these
regions as well. There are also volcanic hotspots which are regions where hot materials come
out of the earth’s mantle formed as a column of molten material rising from the core of the

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earth towards the surface of the earth. Therefore these materials creates a pressure on the
earth surface from inside through which the hot materials are pushed outside. Examples of
Volcanos are Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvias, Mt St Helens, Mount Fuji,
Causes and Effects
Causes
The main cause of the volcanos is the molten materials that tend to come out of the earth
surface through fissures or weak regions of the earth crust. It is a known fact that that heated
materials tend to expand and move up unlikely cold materials. The heated molten rocks and
lava from beneath the surface of the earth pushes upwards and forms volcanic hotspots. The
regions where it finds aweak surface or opening the molten material comes out. There are
various other reasons that may be cited as reasons behind volcanic eruptions such as earth
quake, tectonic shift, or plate convergence or divergence. These result in sudden tension on
the surface due to the pressure created by the molten materials causes the volcanic eruptions.
The volcanos then start to eject lava and molten rocks which come out through the opening
and the erupted lava with time accumulates around the opening to form mountains.
Effects
Effect of volcanic eruption may be categorised as the effects on the surrounding organisms
and the effects on the overall environment and ecosystem of the region. The sudden volcanic
eruptions often result in destruction in the surrounding regions. As these volcanic mountains
are mainly surrounded by forests and natural vegetation, these forests and the habitat within
are the mostly affected elements (Grattan &Torrence, 2016). The volcanic eruption causes the
gas that comes out to form cloud on the area which may cause thunderstorm in the region. It
is also seen that burning pieces of rocks are ejected from the volcano which may fall at
distant places. Many of the animals which live in the surrounding region die due to such

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natural calamity. Also if there are human settlements in the region then there is possibility of
human casualty if the population is not evacuated in proper time. The overall environmental
effect includes large-scale destruction of forests and pollution due to the poisonous gases
ejected from the volcanic mountain.
Long-Term Impacts to the Earth
The volcanic eruption includes gaseous materials like sulphur dioxide, carbon
monoxide, carbon dioxide and ashes. There are various other gases and materials which are
ejected by the volcanos. Some of these gases have cooling effect on the earth’s climate and
some of these increases the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. Sulphur dioxide reflect
sunlight away from the earth’s atmosphere which serves as a cooling process on the other
hand carbon dioxide directly causes global warming increasing the temperature of the
surface of the earth. In the year of 1991 Mt. Pinatubo ejected a huge reserve of sulphur
dioxide to the stratosphere of the earth. This had resulted in an overall dip of the earth’s
atmosphere globally. It is however not proven with surety that the cause is same, however
there are strong evidences to prove that the same incident caused the dip in the atmosphere.
Therefore one of the long term impact of the volcanic eruption may be held as the cooling of
the earth’s climate if the gases that reduces earth’s temperature is ejected by the volcano.
Apart from that there are other gases such as the greenhouse gases which increases the
earth’s atmosphere, which are erupted from volcanic mountains. “In total, around 100–300
million tonnes of CO2 each year, according to the British Geological Survey and the US
Geological Survey. That's a large quantity, but only around 1% of the amount that humans
release from burning fossil fuel alone.” (Theguardian.com, 2011). Therefore the volcanos
may substantially add to the overall temperature of the earth. However this temperature rise is
not even 1% of what the human civilisation adds to the earth temperature.

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The volcanic eruptions also causes abnormal climatic change in the adjoining areas.
The whole area gets covered by smog and there are abnormal thunder storm and rain. There
is death of a number of animals and destruction of natural vegetation in the whole area which
disturbs the ecosystem permanently. This change may take a very long time to get restored.
The volcanic eruption under the oceans causes Tsunami which may create permanent
submerging of the coastal areas which are nearby.
Problems It Poses To Humans
There are various ways volcanos create problem in the life of people who are affected
by the natural incident. One of the most widespread and destructive way it affects the lives of
the people is by the way the whole area including houses, buildings, roads, and fieldscan get
covered with ash. A very serious ash fall may make it impossible for the people to breath.
Lava doesn’t flow very fast that it may run over people and people get ample time to escape
and evacuate. However the houses, buildings and roads may get run over by the molten rocks
and lava that may permanently damage these. There is also pyroclastic flows which is the
mixture of ash and hot gas. These travel faster than the lava and quickly flow down the
mountain slopes. It has the potential to kill any organism that may come anywhere near it.
The pyroclastic flow is known for killing huge number of people when there are volcanic
eruptions. This number is more than the number of people killed due to Lava.
As it is already stated that the gases which are produced by the volcano create
permanent environmental damage to a large area around the volcanic eruption. “.Gases pose
the greatest hazard close to the vent where concentrations are greatest.” For example a long
term volcanic eruption in Kilauea poses threat to the people in the nearby area. Probably the
largest number of people killed in a volcanic eruption in the last 200 years is when the
Tambora volcano exploded killing 10000 people instantly and more than 80000 people due to
later consequences including famine and crop loss (Raible et al., 2018).

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When a volcanic eruption is found to take place in routes of aircrafts it is problematic
for the pilots. This is because the smoke and the ash makes it difficult for the pilots to see
beyond the venting mountain. Also the abnormal weather condition also poses a threat to the
overall situation. The aircraft may fall in problem while passing through these regions of
volcanic eruption. There may be ash getting trapped inside the engines going through the
propellers. “The ash melts in the combustion chamber to form molten glass. The ash then
solidifies on turbine blades, blocking air flow and causing the engine to stall.”
Economic Impacts
There is mixed impact of volcanic eruption. Though the greater number of the impacts
may be held as negative and harmful for the economy, there are also positive impacts of
volcanos to the economic lives of the people. The negative impacts are obviously linked to
the fact that the volcanos are very destructive in nature and it may destroy the cities and
towns that are anywhere near its range (Boué et al., 2015). The pyroclastic flows and the
lahars destroy the infrastructure around the vent.
However the ash may increase the fertility of the soil and these lands at a later stage
may produce good harvest. But this happens at a later stage. In the primary stage the ash
destroys the existing crops in the nearby areas. Apart from that the sulphur dioxide that is
produced by the volcano react to the clouds and cause acid rain (Ménégoz, et al., 2018). The
acid rain often affects the crops very badly and makes permanent damage on the architecture
and the buildings nearby. The volcano known as Kilaeua ejects a large amount of various
gases in the atmosphere (Volcano.oregonstate.edu, 2018). There is a brown fog that is seen to
be affecting a large number of man and animals in the nearby regions. In the eastern United
States there have been acid rain which caused crop failure in the vicinity agricultural fields.
The citizens living in this island often face the problem of crop failure or damage to the crop
fields. “It can inflict millions of dollars of damage on the local economy.” In large cities like

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Tokyo which is in vicinity of volcanic vents, there may be very destructive implications of
such incident occurs. Fujiyama is near to the city and it was last active in 1707. The whole
city is said to be covered by ash at that point of time. In 2002 when the volcano called Mt.
Etna erupted in Europe there was a loss of 800 million Euro.
Mitigation Efforts
The primary mitigation plans in the case of volcanic eruptions can be based on
emergency evacuation (Gvess.org, 2018). This happens when there is a future prediction of
eruption, or when there are signs of eruption. The administration must be on their toes about
the evacuation plan and as soon as such a sign of eruption is seen the administration must be
prompt enough to initiate the evacuation process (Weber et al., 2015). There is another
approach that is related to the restructuring of the area so that there is minimum damage dealt
to the people when there is a case of eruption. The later plan is mainly applicable for the
areas which are highly populated and there is a difficulty in instant evacuation. The
forecasting of volcanic eruption system also needs to be developed more accurately so that
there may be proper prediction in proper time. “Volcanologists base their eruption forecasts
on the data obtained from monitoring of seismicity, deformation of the volcanic cone, gas
emissions, hydrological regimes, and magnetic, electric and gravity fields.”
Volcanos cannot be stopped from erupting with technology so men must think about
processes that include sustainable management of the effects of volcanic eruptions.

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References
Bohannon, R., Bauman, W., & O'Brien, K. J. (2017). Case study: religion and disaster: the
Merapi volcano eruption NAJIYAH MARTIAM. In Grounding Religion (pp. 65-72).
Routledge.
Boué, A., Lesage, P., Cortés, G., Valette, B., & Reyes‐Dávila, G. (2015). Real‐time eruption
forecasting using the material Failure Forecast Method with a Bayesian approach.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 120(4), 2143-2161.
Grattan, J., &Torrence, R. (Eds.). (2016). Living under the shadow: cultural impacts of
volcanic eruptions. Routledge.
Gvess.org. (2018). Mitigation of Volcanic Disasters in Densely Populated Areas. Retrieved
from http://www.gvess.org/publ.html
Ménégoz, M., Bilbao, R., Bellprat, O., Guemas, V., &Doblas-Reyes, F. J. (2018). Forecasting
the climate response to volcanic eruptions: prediction skill related to stratospheric
aerosol forcing. Environmental Research Letters, 13(6), 064022.
Pyle, D. M. (2015). Sizes of volcanic eruptions. In The Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (Second
Edition) (pp. 257-264).
Raible, C. C., Brönnimann, S., Auchmann, R., Brohan, P., Frölicher, T. L., Graf, H.
F., ...&Robock, A. (2016). Tambora 1815 as a test case for high impact volcanic
eruptions: Earth system effects. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change,
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Sigl, M., Winstrup, M., McConnell, J. R., Welten, K. C., Plunkett, G., Ludlow, F., ...&
Fischer, H. (2015). Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past
2,500 years. Nature, 523(7562), 543.

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Theguardian.com (2011). How do volcanoes affect the climate?. [online] the Guardian.
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/feb/09/volcanoes-
climate [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].
Volcano.oregonstate.edu (2018). How do volcanoes affect people? | Volcano World | Oregon
State University. [online] Volcano.oregonstate.edu. Available at:
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Böhlke, C. H. R. I. S. T. O. P. H., LANGE, M., SCHARIFI, E., ... & YOSHITANI, J.
(2015). The Application of Light Research Aircraft for the Investigation of Volcano
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