Section 1 - Investigation of the long term impacts of volcanoes

There are effects on the people as well as the environment.
THE PEOPLE
Lots of people would also be left homeless. There would be a massive decline of the country's population due to whooping numbers of casualties from the hot lava and or the suffocating volcanic ash emitted, which is cause by inadequate information on the eruptions
There will also be effects on the economy, depending on the area affected. If it is the financial district, than the wealth of the country will decrease. This would cause the country to struggle with catching up, and improving the economy.
These are both long term effects.


THE ENVIRONMENT

Food chains will also be altered and left unbalanced- many insects will have grown rampant in the city, and if there are still inhabitants, many of them will succumb to Malaria and other diseases.
The long term effects are- There will also be a huge problem concerning 'Lehar', every time it rains. When the pyroclastic materials mix with large amounts of water, 'lahars' (which is a type of mudflow) are formed, which can flood and bury not only houses but also towns.
The ash and lava that rains over the land and buries it is also a problem. Ash and lava is very difficult to farm on, and it only becomes fertile after a long time.
Therefore, plant life would be limited, which would also affect the food chain.
There might also be silting in the rivers and lakes, which stops boats from navigating through, as the depth becomes much shallower.

For my case study, I will use the Didicas Volcano as an example.

The Didicas volcano is also an active volcano that is located in the Babuyan Islands which lies in Philippines. The base of this volcano is around 1,200 metres with an elevation of 228 metres.



The Didicas volcano had last erupted in 1990.
During a the eruption of the Didicas volcano, there was a release of materials which can be in either solid, liquid or gaseous form. Most volcanic mountains contains particles such as "ash", "cinder", "volcanic dust" and other toxic and highly poisonous gasses like "sulphur" and "methane". When these gasses are over ejected into the atmosphere they distort its composition and could mix with water vapour, condense and fall as "Acid Rain".Some "Greenhouse gasses" are also released into the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions. These greenhouse gasses mixes with air and captures rays of the Sun preventing them from been reflected back to "outer space" leading to modifications of the climate and promoting "Global Warming". Also, there had been a major losses of lives of people around the are, due to the volcanic eruption, as some of the people could not evacuate.

Section 2 - Ways that volcanic eruptions can be predicted

A tiltmeter is an instrument designed to measure very small changes from the horizontal level, either on the ground or in structures. [1] A similar term, in less common usage, is the inclinometer. Tiltmeters are used extensively for monitoring volcanos, the response of dams to filling, the small movements of potential landslides, the orientation and volume of hydraulic fractures, and the response of structures to various influences such as loading and foundation settlement. Tilmeters may be purely mechanical or incorporate vibrating-wire or electrolytic sensors for electronic measurement. A sensitive instrument can detect changes of as little as one arc second.
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Seismometers are instruments that detect disturbances in Earth's crust. Used mostly for earthquake detection, they can also measure the turbulence of a volcano's magma activity. The disturbance or activity is recorded on a seismograph, a sheet of paper that shows the intensity of the activity.

Section 3 - Why people continue to live in areas where volcanoes are found

Currently, there are 500 million people living near volcanoes. Some of these people are lucky and relish in the benefits of living there. However, some aren’t as lucky and die in an eruption. Why do these people risk their lives and live near a volcano? It’s because living near volcanoes actually has more positive effects than negative ones.
Firstly, the surrounding soil is extremely fertile, that means it is a good place to harvest crops. Volcanic ash often contains minerals that are beneficial to plants, and if it is very fine ash it is able to break down quickly and get mixed into the soil. The farmers would earn a lot of money from this, and it benefits the economy.
Secondly, a volcano’s scenery is spectacular. This attracts tourists who would go to see it. Again, this boost in tourism is beneficial to the economy. The settlement’s people would have jobs and enough money to provide for their families.
Another reason why people live near volcanoes is because it can provide geothermal energy, which never runs out and is extremely clean. Also its rich mineral deposits can be converted to quarries.
The advantages seem to outweigh the disadvantages, because wherever there is a volcano, people live around it because of the rich fertile soil, despite the threat of an eruption. Examples of this are Naples (Mount Vesuvius), and Fuji City (Mount Fuji).

Section 4 - What more can be done to reduce the negative impacts of a volcanic eruption

With advanced studies in volcanoes, scientists know more about how a volcanoe react before eruption.
Also,with advanced technology, Scientists can measure the earth shaking, the temperature in the volcanoes and also the activities in the volcanoes.
Seismographs can detect small earthquakes, while tiltmeters and geodimeters can measure the subtle swelling of a volcano.With them , scientist can know about the volcanoes.
Through media, they can warned people about the eruption.
However, people should not just rely on the scientists.
This are the few things you can do to reduce the negative
impact of volcanic eruption:


• You could use Hazard Mapping and Satellite Monitoring so you can tell exactly when the volcano will erupt.

• You could also use barrier walls to penetrate the lava flow and use
• diversionary lava channels.
• Well validated emergency planning
• Nationalizing Tune in the radio or television for volcano updates.
• Listen for disaster sirens and warning signals.
• Review your emergency plan and gather your emergency supplies. Be sure to pack at least a 1-week supply of prescription medications.
• Prepare an emergency kit for your vehicle with food, flares, booster cables, maps, tools, a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, sleeping bags, a flashlight, batteries, etc.
• Fill your vehicle’s gas tank.
• If no vehicle is available, make arrangements with friends or family for transportation, or follow authorities’ instructions on where to obtain transportation.


From an example
The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull are a timeline of volcanic events at Eyjafjöll in Iceland which, although relatively small for volcanic eruptions, caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over an initial period of six days in April 2010. Additional localised disruption continued into May 2010. The eruption was declared officially over in October 2010, when snow on the glacier did not melt.
Seismic activity started at the end of 2009 and gradually increased in intensity until on 20 March 2010, a small eruption started rated as a 1 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.
Beginning on 14 April 2010, the eruption entered a second phase and created an ash cloud that led to the closure of most of Europe's IFR airspace from 15 until 20 April 2010. Consequently, a very high proportion of flights within, to, and from Europe were cancelled, creating the highest level of air travel disruption since the Second World War.
The second phase of the eruption started on 14 April 2010 and resulted in an estimated 250 million cubic metres of ejected tephra. The ash plume rose to a height of approximately 9 kilometres which rates the explosive power of the eruption as a 4 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.
By the morning of 24 May 2010, the view from the web camera installed on Þórólfsfell showed only a plume of water vapour surrounded by a blueish haze caused by the emission of sulphurous gases.
In October 2010, Ármann Höskuldsson, a scientist at the University of Iceland Institute of Earth Sciences stated that the eruption is officially over, although the area is still geothermally active and might erupt again.
About 500 farmers and their families from the areas of Fljótshlíð, Eyjafjöll, and Landeyjar were evacuated overnight and flights to and from Reykjavík and Keflavík International Airport were postponed, but on the evening of 21 March, domestic and international air traffic was allowed again.Inhabitants of the risk zone of Fljótshlíð, Eyjafjöll, and Landeyjar area were allowed to return to their farms and homes after an evening meeting with the Civil Protection Department on 22 March and the evacuation plan was temporarily dismissed. Instead, the police closed the road to Þórsmörk, and the four-wheel-drive trail from Skógar village to the Fimmvörðuháls mountain pass, but these roads and trails were reopened on 29 March, though only for suitable four-wheel drives. When the second fissure appeared, the road was closed again because of the danger of flash floods, which could have developed if the fissure had opened near big ice caps or other snow reservoirs, but the road was again opened at around noon on 1 April.Nobody died in the eruption.