Volcanoes - The Fire Within
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The Earth is composed of five layers, the Earth’s crust, consisting of the oceanic and continental plates, the outer layer, the outer core, and the inner core. The Earth’s crust is made up of 20 plates. Between the plates, areas called faults are always unstable. It is here that volcanoes are formed. They have claimed over 300,000 lives through pyroclastic flows, magma flows, and mudflows. Pyroclastic flows are even more deadly than the volcano’s magma. When the volcano’s chute is clogged, it builds up an enormous amount of ash. This “plug” of ash slowly builds up, until it cannot support itself against the force of gravity, and topples. This creates an enormous landslide, which, if large enough, can be deadly. Pyroclastic flows can travel up to 60 miles per hour, and are perhaps the most deadly weapons those volcanoes posses. The volcano Unzen is famous, as it creates 35 pyroclastic flows a day.
Katia and Maurice Krafft are famous volcanologists. They are different than other volcanologists. Their mission is to capture the elegance, and deadliness, of a volcano on tape. They arrived at Mount Unzen in 1991. Their mission; to capture a pyroclastic flow in action. The Kraffts have videotaped volcanoes for many years’ years. They both began their careers in high school, and met on a college geology trip. They both studied the volcanoes, and took samples and tests, but, additionally, they took films of the volcanoes, which let them share their passion with the world. As Katia Kraft said, “My work is different from other volcanologists’. Because when I see an eruption, sometimes it’s so nice, that I just drop my instruments, and look. Because I don’t want to only study the eruption, I also want to see the eruptions, and show it to other people.” Their life work led them to Mount Unzen. Tragically, the day they filmed Mount Unzen’s eruption, something triggered a pyroclastic flow more than ten times the size of any other ever released by the mountain. Both of them were killed.
Another famous volcano story was that of Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines. The U.S. geological survey was called to Cuba to study a mountain that has had many earthquakes at the summit. Although it has no written record of an eruption, a U.S. air force base was determined to possibly be at risk. When the team reached the Philippines, and the base, they saw a different picture. They thought that the base was nearing catastrophe. The volcano is surrounded by huge hills, spreading out farther and farther away from the base. These are the signs of ancient pyroclastic flows. Huge ash clouds are soon pouring from the summit. On June 5th, several earthquakes trigger a level three alert, meaning an eruption was possible within two weeks. Anyone living around the summit was ordered to evacuate. On June, ash clouds create a level four alert, meaning that an eruption was possible in twenty-four hours. Accompanying this ominous threat was a huge plug of ash, like those that trigger pyroclastic flows. The U.S. air force base is evacuated the next day. On June 12th, 8:51 AM, Pinatubo released an ash column nearly twelve miles into the sky, showering communities even outside of the evacuation zone with ash. Some of these areas are over 50 miles away. The evacuation zone was enlarged. On June 15th, the eruption reaches its finale, at dawn, pyroclastic flows collapse the entire summit. By 10:00 am, the ash clock makes the sky as dark as midnight. Around noon, Clark air base is completely abandoned. The eruption ceased around midnight, but the dangers are not over yet. Mudflows claim hundreds of lives, and much more real estate.
Volcanoes both give us life, and take our life. They recycle minerals necessary for life, and create land. With ought them, our world would be barren. Most of the atoms in our bodies were once inside the Earth, and were brought to the surface by volcanoes. Though volcanoes claims over 30,000 lives, and destroy our cities, we are all wrought from the fire within.
