Julius Marvin D.

Santos - Grade 9 Tourmaline

Mt. Vesuvius

It was shortly after noon on August 24th in the year 79 A.D. and Mount Vesuvius sent a tall
cloud of steam and ash high up into the atmosphere. The ancient Roman town of Pompeii near
modern day Naples was soon covered in complete darkness and the thickness of the falling
debris increased by about 6 to 8 inches per hour. The rocks which comprised the debris were up
to 3 inches in diameter and fell with a speed of up to 100 miles/hour. This first phase of the
eruption led to casualties primarily caused by roof collapses. After 12 hours of continuous
explosive activity, the second phase of the eruption began and it was characterized by substantial
flow of lava down the sloping Mount Vesuvius and this caused additional deaths and destruction.
In fact, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius spewed 1.5 million tons of lava per second into Pompeii
and surrounding towns. In a short period of time, two thousand people were killed, the small
towns of Herculaneum, Oplonti and Stabiae were destroyed, and Pompeii was changed forever.

https://www.vencoreweather.com/blog/2016/8/24/1000-am-on-this-date-in-79-ad-mount-
vesuvius-erupted-and-pompeii-italy-was-changed-forever

Laki Volcano

The climatic effects of the Laki eruption are impressive. In the eastern United States, the winter
average temperature was 4.8 degrees C below the 225 year average. The estimate for the
temperature decrease of the entire Northern Hemisphere is about 1 degree C. The Laki eruption
illustrates that low energy, large volume, long duration basaltic eruptions can have climatic
impacts greater than large volume explosive silica-rich eruptions. The sulfur contents of basaltic
magmas are 10-100 times higher than silica-rich magmas The Laki eruption wasn't really a
single event, but rather 8 months' worth of lava flows and explosions that ejected an
astounding 333~14.7 km3 of basaltic lava that came out of 140 vents along a 23-km-long set of
fissures and cones. Now, the Laki eruptions had a staggering effect on Iceland itself, in large part
due to the volcanic gases released in the eruption and not the lava flows themselves. Sulfur
dioxide released by the lava flows stayed close to the ground (within 5 km) in Iceland, creating
acid rains that were strong enough to burn holes in leaves, kill trees and shrubs and irritate skin.
The eruption released 8 Mt of fluorine, so as that fluorine settled out and was incorporated into
grasses, grazing livestock got fluorinosis. Sixty percent of all grazing livestock died due to the
effects of the Laki eruptions. The "Haze Famine" as it is called in Iceland killed over 10,000
people (~22% of the population) from famine and disease.

http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/laki-iceland-1783
Mt. Krakatoa

Krakatau erupted in 1883, in one of the largest eruptions in recent time. Krakatau is an
island volcano along the Indonesian arc, between the much larger islands of Sumatra and Java.

The explosions were heard on Rodriguez Island, 4653 km distant across the Indian Ocean, and
over 1/13th of the earths surface. Ash fell on Singapore 840 km to the north, Cocos (Keeling)
Island 1155 km to the SW, and ships as far as 6076 km west-northwest. Darkness covered the
Sunda Straits from 11 a.m. on the 27th until dawn the next day. Giant waves reached heights of
40 m above sea level, devastating everything in their path and hurling ashore coral blocks
weighing as much as 600 tons. At least 36,417 people were killed, most by the giant sea waves,
and 165 coastal villages were destroyed. Every recording barograph in the world documented the
passage of the atmospheric pressure wave, some as many as 7 times as the wave bounced back
and forth between the eruption site and its antipodes for 5 days after the explosion. Blue and
green suns were observed as fine ash and aerosol, erupted perhaps 50 km into the stratosphere,
circled the equator in 13 days. The volcanic dust veil that created such spectacular atmospheric
effects also acted as a solar radiation filter, lowering global temperatures as much as 1.2 degree
C in the year after the eruption. Temperatures did not return to normal until 1888.

https://www.livescience.com/28186-krakatoa.html

Mt. St. Helens

Mount St. Helens in Washington erupts, causing a massive avalanche and killing 57 people on
this day in 1980. Ash from the volcanic eruption fell as far away as Minnesota. The ash caused
static electricity and lightning bolts. The 24-megaton blast demolished a 230-square-mile area
around the mountain. Millions of trees were scorched and burned by the hot air alone. When the
glacier atop the mountain melted, a massive mudslide wiped out homes and dammed up rivers
throughout the area. The plume of ash belched out for nine hours; easterly winds carried it across
the state and as far away as Minneapolis, Minnesota. The falling ash clogged carburetors and
thousands of motorists were stranded. Fifty-seven people died overall from suffocation, burns
and other assorted injuries. Twenty-seven bodies, including that of the stubborn Harry Truman,
were never found. Mount St. Helens went from 9,600 feet high to only 8,300 feet high in a
matter of seconds.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mount-st-helens-erupts
Mt. Pinatubo

Here, steam rises from fumaroles on the caldera floor of Pinatubo, after the June 15 eruption and
caldera collapse, as viewed from the north on Oct. 4, 1991. The outer flanks of the caldera are
stripped of vegetation and covered with ash. Typhoon Yunya was screaming across the island,
but the angry skies were nothing compared with the angry Earth. Mount Pinatubo, an
unassuming volcano that no one had even realized was active until a few years prior, was
blowing its top. A column of ash spewed 21 miles (34 kilometers) into the atmosphere, opening
like an umbrella to form a cloud 249 miles (400 km) across.

By the time Pinatubo's climactic eruption ended, a snowlike blanket of ash at least a half-inch (1
centimeter) thick coated 4,660 square miles (7,500 square km) of the island of Luzon. Over the
next year, the ash spewed into the atmosphere by Pinatubo would lower global temperatures by
an average of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius). The volcano would continue
smoldering and smoking for months. And for years afterward, monsoon season would wash ash
down the mountain's slopes in devastating lahars, raising the initial death toll of the eruption
from 200 or 300 to more than 700.

https://www.livescience.com/14603-pinatubo-eruption-20-anniversary.html

Mt. Mayon

At 8am on February 1, 1814, began the most deadly recorded eruption of Mt Mayon, in which
more than 1,200 people were killed. The sides of the mountain were hidden by veils of ash,
smoke and vapour. A fiery stream of lava dashed down the side of the mountain and the sky
darkened. Then stones began falling to earth killing many people. Even houses offered no
protection as the stones were red hot and set buildings on fire. After the eruption ceased, large
numbers of dead and injured people lay everywhere. The whole town of Cagsawa was buried.
Just the tops of buildings and coconut trees protruded from the debris. The formerly beautiful
cultivated slopes of Mt Mayon were now just covered with sand and ash.

http://www.fabulousphilippines.com/mayon-eruption-1814.html