Dangers
What are the dangers of a volcano? Volcanoes are one of many of the worlds cataclysms and there are more dangers than just the classic lava.
Volcanic gasVolcanic gas is very harmful to anything in the surrounding area. The carbon dioxide will suffocate people and animals, the fluorine will contaminate water supplies, and sulfuric acid (acid rain) will burn people and corrode buildings.
|
Volcanic ashVolcanic ash is a very dangerous part of an eruption it can reach heights of 25 miles into the sky affecting weather by blocking out suns rays. It also can affect air traffic because it will block visibility and clog up the engines. This will crush buildings and bury cities surrounding the volcano.
|
Mud flowsMud flows or lahars are the most dangerous form of volcanic activity. The hot molten rock or ash will melt snow or ice, a torrent of mud powerful enough to rip up and carry trees Mud flows or lahars carry so much debris that look like raging floods of concrete entombing everything in mud.
|
LavaLava is the most known volcanic danger. Lava is the fluid phase of volcanic activity. This molten rock can reach up to 2,000 degrees fahrenheit and glows red hot to white hot as it flows. Lava can also flood whole country sides, rushing down hills at 35 mph. Lava called rhyolite is composed of 65 to 75 precent of silica, this lava melts at a lower melting point and the gas in it often boils off with explosive force propelling large amounts of glowing ash and cinders.
|
Lava bombsLava bombs are solid rocks that are hurled from volcanoes up to five miles from the volcano. These rocks are severely dangerous when the come crashing down into cites and town crushing whatever it lands on.
|
Pyroclastic flows are very dangerous they are volcanic gas, volcanic ash, and lava blocks traveling at very high speeds if you see one run in the opposite direction as fast as you can. These flows will destroy and bury anything in it's path leaving a trail of destruction.
|
Here you can see the remnants of a building after the eruption of El Chichon volcano in Mexico 1982 The steel rods bend pointing the way the Pyroclastic flows went
|