Volcanoes

Question 1

Eyfjallajokull: details

• Date
• Plate boundary
• Plates involved
• VEI
• Type of volcano

Answer 1

March 2010, main eruption 14 April
Constructive plate boundary
North American + Eurasian plates
VEI 4
Strato-volcano

Question 2

Eyfjallajokull: impacts

• Deaths/injuries
• Hight of ash cloud
• No. of countries closing airspace
• Losses for airline industry
• Reduced CO2 emmision

Answer 2

0 deaths, few respiratory concerns
11,000m high ash cloud (into jet stream)
20 countries closing airspace - Russia to Spain
Arline industry lost £1.2 billion lost in 6 days
2.8m tonnes of CO2

Question 3

Eyfjallajokull: impacts

• Passengers stranded worldwide
• Loss of productivity from stranded passengers
• Kenya losses (flowers)
• Depth of ash (affecting agriculture)
• Risk of flooding increased

Answer 3

7 million passengers stranded worldwide
£400 million lost a day
Kenya £1.3 million worth of flowers
10cm deep ash (was washed away + good long term)
Ash+meltwater and rain => mudslides + lahars => into rivers raising beds

Question 4

Eyfjallajokull: management before

• How many EQs recorded before eruption
• Warning system?
• How many farmers evacuated
• Name of monitoring group
• Types of monitoring

Answer 4

3,000+
30 mins prior to eruption a warning message sent out
500 + their families
Nordic Volcanogical Centre + international team providing 24/7 watch
GPS, seismic monitoring and satellite radar interferometry used to track

Question 5

Eyfjallajokull: management during

• how many ordered to evacuate
• Why were people evacuated later?
• Danger of this hazard?

Answer 5

700 evacuated
14 April major glacial burst
2000-3000 m^3/sec discharge speed of flood

Question 6

Eyfjallajokull: management after

• Why was the EU fine with fewer imports of food
• How did Tesco get past the closed airspace
• Stranded passengers?

Answer 6

EU’s CAP (common-agricultural policy) means EU is self-sufficient for food
Tesco flew Kenyan produce into Spain and then used good road transport links
Passengers stranded outside entitled to legal compensation by airlines

Question 7

Eyfjallajokull: tourism impacts

• How many people had visited by the end of March
• Daily losses from European tourism industries
• Eurostar gains

Answer 7

10,000 visitors by the end of March (before major eruption)
£5-6 million lost daily
50,000 extra passengers on the Eurostar

Question 8

Merapi: hazard event detail

• Date
• Type of volcano
• VEI
• Type of plate boundary + plates involved
• Type of lava

Answer 8

25th October - 30th November
Strato-volcano
VEI 4
Destructive plate margin
Indo-Australian plate subducted beneath the Eurasian plate
Andesitic lava

Question 9

Merapi: primary impacts

• deaths/injuries
• Cost to infrastructure
• Multi-hazard zone - 2 events before

Answer 9

353 deaths/577 injuries
$781 million financial cost
27 May 6.3 magnitude EQ 50km SW of Merapi, killing 5,000
7.8 EQ triggered a tsunami a week before, killing 408

Question 10

Merapi: secondary/tertiary impacts

• Numbers: homeless and displaced
• Vegetable prices increased by how much
• Decline in tourism?
• How deep were ash layers
• Examples of health problems

Answer 10

200,000 homeless, 320,000 displaced
Vegetable prices doubled
70% decline in tourism in some areas
Layers of ash (2.5mm - 30cm in some areas) covered fields and villages
Acute respiration infection, eye irritation

Question 11

Merapi: management before

• When did monitoring start
• Upgrade of monitoring equipment: when and what
• Special about Merapi?

Answer 11

Monitoring began in 1942 using seismometers
1970s brought an upgrade of monitoring equipment including magnetic and tilt measurements
Merapi is a DECADE volcano, one of 16 identified by IAVCEI due to its destructive nature

Question 12

Merapi: management during

• When did scientists notice something was wrong
• First evacuation + radius
• Date of increase of evacuation radius
• How many evacuation centres + from what
• How many people involved in the national aid response

Answer 12

October 22nd, 3 days before, volcano was experiencing EQs, gas emissions more intense than usual - 500 EQs in the weekend before
October 25th people in a 10km radius were evacuated
4th November radius increased to 20km
210 evacuation centres set up (tents, schools, churches, stadiums)
1600 people

Question 13

Merapi: management after

• How many moved to safer houses permanently
• Exclusion zone - how big?
• What was special task force for?

Answer 13

2682 moved to permanent safer housing
2.5km exclusion zone set up to settle people in areas of lower risk
Task force set up to support people that had been affected by the volcano (family issues/loss of job - farmers mainly)

Question 14

Merapi: bad things that happened

• How much had magma risen prior to eruption
• Speed/height/spread of pyroclastic flows
• Ash cloud height and areal extent
• Areal extent and temperature of volcanic bombs and hot gases
• Lahar: distance travelled

Answer 14

Magma had risen by 1km
Pyroclastic flows: 100km/h spread 3km down the slope and were 15m high
Ash fell more than 30km away and created a 6km high ash cloud
Volcanic bombs and hot gases of up to 800ºC turned up over 11km away
Lahar created by ash, rock and lava + heavy rainfall (3-4th November) travelled for over 15km