Noor Banihashem Ahmad                                                                Outside Seminar

Earth Science                                                                                                 January 2012

                                   

Doomsday Volcanoes

I watched a short film called Doomsday Volcanoes on PBS. Currently in Iceland, there are four active volcanoes, and they are not located very far away from one another.  The last eruption was in 2010, and the volcano is called Eyjafjallajökull, or Eyja for short. This film also talked about three other volcanoes: Katla, Laki, and Helka. Scientists are concerned that these volcanoes will erupt, and when they do, the eruptions will be worse than ever recorded. Because these volcanoes are so close together, it has led scientists to believe that they are connected. Scientists are now trying to estimate when the volcanoes will explode, and how bad the eruption will be. Laki is a 17 mile-long volcano, and it had a large eruption in 1783 that lasted for over eight months. The magma, although deadly, was not the main cause of the death of 1/5 of the population. This volcano contained large amounts of sulfur, which produced sulfuric dioxide. When the sulfur dioxide acted with the water vapor in the air, it produce sulfuric acid. When this is breathed in, it rips your lungs apart. So many people were killed, and if this were to happen yet again, the explosion would be even bigger. The acid could potentially pollute all of Europe and start coming into North America. The next volcano that was talked about was Hekla. The last time Hekla erupted, it left much ash behind. If another horrific eruption from Hekla were to happen, it would create much more ash, and the worse part is, that it could happen at any time, and without much warning. We would not be prepared for such an explosion as this. This ash could spread out in the sky, and this is very bad for the airline industry because planes would not be able to fly. Although these volcanoes are deadly and horrific, the biggest threat comes from the volcano that is totally covered by ice, Katia. On average, Katia erupts every 50 years, and the last time it erupted was 100 years ago. This causes some concern because scientists believe that it is building up to an eruption that would be very chaotic. Scientists installed a GPS in the volcanoes crater, and they found that if this volcano were to explode, it could potentially last up to one year. This eruption would be worse than the eruption in Philippines in 1991.

            This film is very vital for the society as a whole for various reasons. If a volcano were to erupt right now in Iceland, we would all be in danger. Ash could spread in the air, and this could potentially put the airline industry out of business. Ash would be suspended into the air, and it is very hard for pilots, or anyone to see it that high up in the air. If ash gets caught in the engine, it would cause terrible fires. There has recently been an invention so that pilots can see that there is ash 10 or 15 minutes ahead of time. This puts them in a good position because they are then able to avoid it. The information presented in the movie was also important because we learned that we were all in danger. In 1793, Laki exploded, and people were dying because their lungs were being torn apart by sulfuric acid. If another Laki eruption was to occur, it could spread throughout our whole hemisphere, and this could be very bad. It could wipe out a large sum of our population. This film also informed us as a whole what volcanoes can do, and the matter is not something that one should joke about. There is a lot of technology these days, so scientists have better ideas as to when a volcano will explode. Even so, scientists cannot predict exactly when an eruption will occur because really, it could happen at any time. It is good to be informed about the disasters and chaos a volcano could bring about.

            I think that this film was very well presented because of the detail and thought put into it. I really liked how there were many different scientists involved in this whole process. They made everything very easy to understand even though they were addressing a complicated matter. I also really liked seeing all of the examples that the scientists were able to show us. For example, one scientist showed how sulfuric acid reacts with human flesh. He got a small piece of meat and put it in the sulfuric acid. It was very interesting to see how the meat turned gray and got ripped apart. It was a very good analogy, and it made things a lot easier to comprehend. I also really liked the fact that they connected all the volcanoes together, and provided the viewer with insightful information on each volcano. I feel as though that made it all the better to watch. I also learned a lot about what happens underneath the volcanoes, I never knew that the magma was transported from craters. I just thought it was floating around at the bottom of the volcano waiting to erupt. I really understood how the magma got carried to the volcano, and it made a lot more sense after watching the film. Overall, I don’t think these scientists said anything without supporting it with facts, and overall it was very compelling to watch. It makes us concerned about what could happen if another deadly eruption we to occur, and the scariest thing is that we cannot do anything about it.