This course focuses on the concepts of disaster risks, hazards, vulnerability, capacity,
and application of scientific knowledge and the solution or practical problems in a
physical environment. It is designed to bridge the gap between theoretical science and
daily living.
LESSON 4: GEOLOGIC HAZARDS –
VOLCANIC HAZARDS
Learning Outcomes
• Explain various volcano-related hazards.
• Differentiate the different volcano hazards
• Recognize signs of an impending volcanic eruption
• Identify appropriate measures/interventions before, during, and
after a volcanic eruption.
INTRODUCTION
This lesson will give insights about the various potential volcanic
hazards. The Philippines sits on a unique tectonic setting ideal to
volcanism and earthquake activity. It is situated at the boundaries of two
tectonic plates – the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian plate – both
of which subduct or dive beneath the archipelago along the deep
trenches along its east and west seaboard.
In this lesson you will have activities that will broaden your
understanding about volcanic hazards and help you analyze the effects
of the volcanic hazards. Enjoy and keep reading!
ACTIVITY
Answer the quiz uploaded in the Google Classroom.
ANALYSIS
Effects of Mt. Pinatubo Eruption
The second-largest volcanic eruption of this century, and
by far the largest eruption to affect a densely populated area,
occurred at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines on June 15,
1991. The eruption produced high-speed avalanches of hot
ash and gas, giant mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash
hundreds of miles across. The impacts of the eruption continue
to this day. (USGS)
ABSTRACTION
VOLCANIC HAZARDS
refers to any potentially dangerous volcanic process that puts human
lives, livelihoods or infrastructure at risk of harm (British Geological
Survey)
What is a volcano?
• A vent, hill, or mountain from which molten or hot rocks with
gaseous material have been ejected
• Also craters, depressions, hills or mountains formed by removal
of pre-existing material or by accumulation of ejected materials
Why does the Philippines have many volcanoes?
• The Philippines sits on a unique tectonic setting ideal to
volcanism and earthquake activity. It is situated at the
boundaries of two tectonic plates – the Philippine Sea Plate and
the Eurasian plate – both of which subduct or dive beneath the
archipelago along the deep trenches along its east and west
seaboard.
Tectonic setting of the Philippines
• The tectonic setting of the Philippines is complex. It is
characterized by a number of small plates squeezed between 2
convergent plate margins, separated by small subduction
zones and major transform faults.
• The currently active volcanoes in the Philippines are found on
several corresponding volcanic arcs, which can be simplified
into two major N-S trending arcs, the Luzon and Mindanao
Volcanic Arcs.
• The volcanoes of the Philippines are produced at the junction
of the Philippines tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate.
• The volcanoes of the Philippines rank as the most deadly and
costly in the world: about 13% of its historic eruptions have
caused fatalities, most notably at Taal and Mayon, and 22% of
its eruptions caused significant damage.
I. VOLCANIC HAZARDS DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH ERUPTION
1. Lava flows are rivers of incandescent of molten rock or lava moving
downslope or away from an eruption vent. Lava flows composed of low silica
magma have low viscosities and tend to flow at high speeds (kilometers per
hour), while those composed of high silica magma have high viscosities and
tend to move slowly (kilometers per day). Steep slopes encourage faster and
longer flows than gentle slopes or terrain.
(Source: USGS)
2. Tephra fall or ashfall and ballistic projectiles
Tephra (fragmented volcanic particles) or ash (fragmented volcanic
particles less than 2 mm in diameter) propelled through the atmosphere
in an eruption plume or an eruption column eventually fall or
gravitationally settle over areas downwind of an erupting volcano,
forming blankets of tephra fall or ashfall.
Ashfall can also be rained out from the ash clouds of PDCs. Large particle
tephra called volcanic bombs that are too heavy to transport in eruption
columns are ejected straight out of the volcanic vent as ballistic
projectiles that fall near the vent.
Tephra or ashfall can accumulate as thick blankets of material, causing
infrastructural damages, roof collapse, contamination of water resources
and burial. Ashfall is a health hazard and a danger to aircraft and other
industrial machinery, such as those for transportation and power
generation.
(Mt. Pinatubo Eruption 1991)
3. Pyroclastic density currents or PDCs (pyroclastic flow, pyroclastic surge,
base surge)
PDCs are mixtures of fragmented volcanic particles (pyroclastics), hot gases and
ash that rush down the volcanic slopes or rapidly outward from a source vent at
high speeds.
PDCs range from pyroclastic flows to pyroclastic surges depending mainly on
particle concentrations, pyroclastic flows being denser, and therefore ground-
hugging currents and pyroclastic surges being more dilute, more mobile
currents.
PDCs can be generated by the gravitational collapse of the base of eruption
columns, or explosion of a lava dome, or by spalling or gravitational collapse of
a lava dome or of lava flow margins (called nuée-ardéntes). A special class of
PDC called base surges, mobile and water-vapor-rich pyroclastic surges, are
generated by explosive phreatomagmatic eruptions. PDCs are the most lethal
of all volcanic hazards and can cause incineration, asphyxiation, abrasion,
dynamic pressure impact and burial in hot volcanic material.
4. Lateral blast are laterally directed thrusts of hot gas and ash that can be
generated from an exploding dome on the summit vent or inside the edifice
when sudden mass failure of the volcanic flanks occur.
Lateral blasts travel at subsonic speeds at the onset, flattening everything in their
paths and causing impacts similar to those of PDCs.
5. Volcanic gas form a dissolved component of magma that is released to the
atmosphere in large quantities during eruptions.
The principal volcanic gases are water vapor, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur
dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride and
hydrogen fluoride.
Minor amounts of nitrogen, methane, argon and helium can also be degassed
from magma. Volcanic gases form aerosols that can both cool down the earth’s
atmosphere and deplete its ozone concentration for a period of time.
Some volcanic gases such as hydrogen fluoride are toxic and can endanger
livestock that ingest contaminated vegetation. Non-toxic species such as
carbon dioxide can also be lethal when released in large quantities, displacing
air and causing asphyxiation in human and animal populations.
II. VOLCANIC HAZARDS INDIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH ERUPTION
1. Lahar (an Indonesian term), sometimes called volcanic mudflows or debris
flows, are slurries of volcanic sediment, debris and water that cascade down a
volcano’s slopes through rivers and channels.
Lahars in tropical areas are mainly generated by torrential rainfall on
unconsolidated deposits from a past eruption. These can also be triggered by
the sudden draining of a crater lake or a collapsed natural or man-made dam or
the movement of a PDC into a river or lake and eventual mixing with water.
2. Debris avalanche, landslide
Debris avalanche or sector collapse is the mass failure of the flanks of a
volcano edifice due to magma intrusion, a strong earthquake, or the movements
of faults beneath the edifice.
Debris avalanche events form a horseshoe-shaped scar or amphitheater, from
which the collapse mass has detached from the edifice to form a field
of hummocks or small hills downslope of the amphitheater. Debris avalanches
are rare phenomena but are extremely hazardous when they do occur,
endangering localities far beyond the usual extents of more frequent volcanic
hazards.
3. Volcanic tsunami occur in caldera lakes when water is displaced by
deformation of the lake floor caused by rising magma or the entry of PDCs or
landslides into the lake, or in seas when water is displaced by PDCs or debris
avalanches from volcanoes. Such tsunamis are unlike those generated by large
magnitude offshore earthquakes, which are long-period waves generated by
fault displacement or deformation of the seafloor.
4. Ground deformation (subsidence, fissuring)
Ascending magma can cause the volcano edifice to swell before and during an
eruption, causing the ground to break up into fissures, typically along
weaknesses in the rock such as fractures or faults.
After magma has been erupted, its removal from the subsurface can cause the
ground to sink and subside and further fissuring to occur. Ground subsidence
and fissuring are typically accompanied by earthquakes, and altogether can
cause infrastructural and house or building damages, loss or degradation of
land surface and re-routing of waterways and rivers.
5. Secondary explosion (Secondary PDCs and ashfall)
Secondary explosions can be generated in still hot volcanic deposits
such as those of PDCs and lava flow when these come into contact with
water by erosion, rising groundwater or rainfall. These can cause
remobilization of volcanic material to generate small-scale PDCs and
minor ashfall.
APPLICATION
The Cataclysmic 1991 Eruption of Mount Pinatubo,
Philippines
What were the continuing volcanic hazards in the 1991 Mt.
Pinatubo eruption?
List and explain them.
ASSESSMENT
Answer the quiz uploaded in the google classroom.
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