Ubinas Volcano
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Ubinas Volcano
The Ubinas Volcano erupted on 30th March 2007, at approximately 5.15am. It is located at an altitude of 5,400 meters above sea level in the province of Sanchez-Carrion in Peru, South America.
It is caused by the converging plate movement of the South American and Nazca plates. The plates converge together due to convection currents set up by the heating and cooling of magma in the mantle. When an oceanic plate converges with a continental plate, the oceanic plate gets subducted as it is denser. The subducted region of oceanic crust reaches the mantle and melts down due to heat from the core. As it is melted into magma, water is also released, causing pressure to be formed. With the pressure, the magma is forced upwards. It would then find its way out of the Earth’s crust, causing a volcanic eruption. This is known as the plate tectonics theory developed from the continental drift theory proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912.
Residents living in Anascapa, located 6 kilometres away from the Ubinas Volcano, were hit with a thick blanket of falling ash which caused problems to their eyes and nose. They observed falling rocks and a long column of smoke coming from the top of the volcano. Fortunately, there were no deaths or casualties. Anascapa town authorities passed out protective masks to the residents, but not everyone received a mask due to limited supplies.
With technology nowadays, volcanoes can be predicted. In some countries, volcano eruption drills could be practiced so mass evacuation can be carried out efficiently when an eruption is predicted, ensuring the safety of the residents. With advancement in technology, flexible steel structures and shock absorbing rubber blocks can be constructed to reduce damage caused by the earthquakes that accompany volcanic eruptions.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-3509-peru-volcanic-explosion-causes-panic-peru
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Peru
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubinas
http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=ubinas%20volcano&imgurl=http://www.go2peru.com/imagenes2/ScreenSavers/ubinas_volcano.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.go2peru.com/wallpaper.htm&usg=__f4aChX6P8BkSBh8Npa-sOd2uTkg=&h=800&w=1280&sz=161&hl=en&itbs=1&tbnid=KqQ2iWvcY2IVkM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dubinas%2Bvolcano%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=KqQ2iWvcY2IVkM&start=0
http://www.livinginperu.com/lipZI.php
Notes- interactive geography (Pan Pacific Publication)
Earth Our Home- 2nd Edition authors: Andy Koh and Valerie Goh (Marshall Cavendish)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Testing
testing
