The Living Earth
The earth is constantly giving itself face lifts, usually through natural disasters especially volcanoes. Everyone thinks they know what a volcano is, what it looks like, and what it does. The common impression of volcanoes is a snow capped cone-shaped mountain. Many, however, do not realize that volcanoes can be a crater in the ground or a crack in the earth. The volcano that people commonly think of is called a stratovolcano. This is because cones are built up of layers (strata) of lava and volcanic ash. A less known type of volcano is explosion crater which are produced when hot magma (usually basalt) reacts violently with shallow water, or water soaked ground. Something that resembles explosion crater is when a stratovolcano blows itself to bits leaving a similar crater. Many times these craters create bays to large bodies of water or lakes. A well known example of this is Crater Lake in Oregon, which was formed when a volcano blew up 6,845 years ago. The last type of volcano is lava erupting from cracks this is called fissure eruptions; this can produce huge thick piles of lava. The total number of recognizable volcanoes is about 10,000. Of that 10,000, 529 are active meaning they have erupted
One of the more recent eruptions occurred in Russia with the Kliuchevskoi Volcano. The stratovolcano stands at 4835 meters tall. Here’s an example of a recently which poses a constant threat of the people who live around it. “Intense light and heat 300 meters above the crater of the Kliuchevskoi volcano in Kamchatka has been observed on 17th November. Powerful ash, gas and vapor eruptions reaching the heights of up to 1,500 meters were observed. The ash cloud stretched for over 20 kilometers to the northeast. Seismological stations in the area of the volcano recorded a large number of surface earthquakes and an uninterrupted spasmodic volcanic vibration. It is true that with our technology, one can determine that a volcano is expected to erupt soon, but though out history to present volcanoes have taken their share of lives. Since 1600A.D. about 262,000 people have been killed by volcanoes. This averages out to be one person per year per volcano. It is, however, not just lava flow that is the cause of death from volcanoes. Of the 262,000 only 900 was due to lava flow, around 11,000 for ash fall, and 27,000 for mud flows. Other major causes include 55,000 for pyroclastic flows and surges, around 67 from lateral blasts, about 45,000 for volcanic tsunamis, and the biggest being famine taking 123,000 people. Experts said the Kliuchevskoi volcano "entered a long eruption phase." Its activity is gradually intensifying. Presently, the eruption of the volcano does not pose a threat to the population of the peninsula. However, the ash eruptions and clouds are dangerous for aviation; ash in the turbines of a plane can lead to mechanical failure and unexpected eruptions make navigation difficult.”(Volcanolive.com) Many areas such as this volcanic e
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Approximate Word count = 1193
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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