Geology 101 with Willsey, Episode #13: Volcanic Hazards 

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Amazing! I check the USGS Earthquake map every day, and today we are having very large quakes all over the world. Great timing, Shawn!

What we have at 19:29 is Mt Fuji with a Shinkansen heading toward Osaka at about 200 km/h. It's probably crossing the Fuji River near Fujikawa City, and it'll out run the lahar.

At 3 minutes or so, you mention how pyroclastic flows travel faster than you can in your vehicle. My mind instantly went to the couple who died in their car less than half a mile from the maximum extent of the pyroclastic flows at Mt St Helens in 1980, while attempting to attempt to escape from the lateral blast.

Thanks for episode #13, Shawn! I got to watch 2 episodes this weekend, very cool :) Pyroclastic flows are terrifying, yes. The example that always comes to my mind is the "nuée ardente" that occurred during the eruption on 8 May 1902 of Mount Pelée, a stratovolcano on the French island of La Martinique, completely destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre in a matter of minutes and killed everyone there, an estimated 29,000 people if I remember correctly... :( Volcanoes are incredibly beautiful and terrifying at the same time, I guess that's what makes them so fascinating! Looking forward to episode #14 :)

Shawn, your work again is great. I always learn something new from your videos.

Thanks Shawn

Thank you for another informative episode. Your choice of illustrations really helps me take on board the events. Love it! ❤

Thank you Shawn. I'm really enjoying this series. Learning a lot.

Excellent coverage of why not to live anywhere near a volcano! Learned quite a bit about the dangers present.

Excellent, thank you--

Thank you! ❤

Excellent lesson today Shawn. I dreamt Mt. Rainer exploded last night. It was terrifying and beautiful at the same time.

Love these episodes! Thank you Shawn!😊

Thankyou Shawn that was well presented you make so very informative interesting I wish they where longer can’t wait for the next one#14😊

Great work Professor! The only thing that you missed were the tsunamis like Tonga, Stromboli, Krakatoa. Your the best, love your videos!

Thanks for the lesson, Shawn!

Thanks for the info Shawn. So when the volcano erupts in my backyard I’ll have my emergency plan ready.

Thanks Professor, a great lesson !

This is fascinating. Thank you!!

Good video Shawn, thank you for your time and effort in making these and putting these together for us all. New Zealand has volcanoes, although most at least current active ones are in the North Island. The main ones are all part of the Taupo Volcanic system. (Which is technically a "super Volcano"), Interestingly what is now one of our deepest and largest lakes, Lake Taupo used to be a mountain. The system itself has produced one of the largest eruptions in history, The Oruanui eruption, much bigger than Krakatoa. Although it is seldom mentioned. There is lahar hazards also and one of the most well known disasters in NZ that was caused by a Lahar is called the Tangiwai Disaster when the lahar took out a rail bridge and the passenger train came through afterwards. There is now lahar warning systems in place for that entire area. I have always been taught that Pyroclastic clouds are like Tsunami's if you see it and not on high ground or well away, your already too late. In regards with Pyroclastic clouds if the heat doesnt kill you, the ash will. Keep safe and well everyone :)

You mentioned ash fall as a hazard to aviation because of the disruption to infrastructure, but it is also a huge hazard to aircraft in flight before it settles. It remelts and fuses as fine glass shards all over the insides of piston (normal internal combustion engine), turbojet and turbofan aircraft engines, destroying them in flight, to the obvious detriment of the safe completion of the flight. So attempting to use an aircraft to watch eruptions is extremely dangerous, particularly if the magma is silica-rich, or felsic in nature. It can reach extremely high altitudes and be encountered hundreds of miles from the eruption. Particularly at night, volcanos in areas of the world with poor radar coverage can create unmapped clouds well up into the cruising altitudes of commercial aviation, tens of thousands of feet in the air. The weather radar equipment on civil aircraft is designed to be optimally sensitive to water, and volcanic ash is dry. On the 24th of June 1982, British Airways flight 009, a Boeing 747-200 reg. G-BDXH flew into an ash cloud at 37,000 feet over the Indian Ocean from an eruption in Indonesia at night, causing all four engines to flame out. Thankfully, the crew were able to restart the engines with reduced power, although one (no. 2 I believe) was vibrating too much to be used and had to be shut down and secured. The flight crew performed an emergency landing in Jakarta almost totally blind, due to the windscreens (and all other forwards facing surfaces) being sandblasted to near complete opacity such that they were unable to taxi. The aircraft had to receive extensive repair, including the replacement of all five engines (the auxiliary power unit, or APU, is also a small jet engine), the windscreens, and much of the fuel system, among the pricier items, before it was able to reenter service. In 2010, most of northern Europe had to shut down all aviation due to ash from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which had spread over much of the continent and was distributed even more widely by the jetstream. It was the largest shutdown of aviation since WW2 and areas of closure lasted unpredictably and intermittently from 15th April until the last country to fully reopen its airspace did so on 5th May. The disruption was actually greater than that following the attacks of 11th September 2001, with over 100,000 flights and 10 million passengers affected, some of whom suffered visa problems due to international strandings and were unable to leave airports at their unexpected destinations, as far apart as Canada and India. Road trips of up to 2,100 miles were used to return home for some stranded passengers. It cost the airline industry at least $1.7bn. The airline regulators now have a limit on flights, with ash levels of over 2mg/M³ being classified s unsafe and prohibited, although up to 4mg/M³ is allowed for aircraft and crew (you need both to be certified) with a certificate of compliance with safe operations in moderate areas of ash density. By the 5th of May, most European television news and weather announcers had even learned to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull! 😁

Thank you great info, well taught… love it

Thanks!

Volcanoes do so much for us that is why we should respect them.

Another in this fine series, excellently complemented with videos and animations. All quite well explained and structured. Looking forward to #14! Still wish the playlist was reversed, with the later videos further down in the list. At the end of this video, the episode on Volcano Types began playing (so I almost missed giving this one the thumbs-up!) Having it the other way around would result in the videos playing in order without the need for viewers to manually select the correct next video. Is this a case of RU-vid automatically placing videos in the playlist in order order you added them to the list? I know that I can adjust the order in my own playlists but I don't know whether or not that ordering would apply when it is viewed by somebody else.

You and I both know the Yellowstone area potential. I don't think the average citizen has any idea. Luv your videos, thanks.

How much ash around the Valle Caldera in New Mexico. Lots of build up as pueblos were dug into the cliffs, etc but have not seen any estimates on drift of ash clouds.

Having been to Japan as a kid in the late 1940s, I recognize Mount Fuji, even if the bullet train was not in the foreground. You have provided information about volcanoes that I have not had from my college courses or RU-vid videos, thank you.

I was 15 and 1980 Nampa was 18,500 I believe we were actually smaller than twin Falls at that time. I'm sure I remember Ash in the air.

Thanks for all the hard work on these videos!

Thanks

That lahar pic I think is Pinatabu 1991 when a typhoon arrived just after it blew, the Mc Arthur highway running in the center

What I missed in your talk about ashes is that volcanic ash is a complete different composition as ashes from i.e. fires. No carbon based material but silica based. And the white fluffy stuff ashes are in those disaster movies is nowhere near reality. Volcanic ash is like sharp glass shards, and in weight about 3x water. So if your building would collaps when there is about 30 cm of water on it's roof, the same will happen with only 10 cm ashes. I fully understand you don't have the time in these videos to talk deep into the stuff, but this little extra info might help people better understand the dangers of it. Keep up the good work!

Soufrière Hills volcano is a complex stratovolcano , I think there were video's of pyroclastic flows 1995?

I recommended your channel to Clint from Clint's Reptiles on RU-vid. He is looking to learn geology from an expert such as yourself and I think he should watch your Geology 1 videos. His channel is very educational as well.

Google Maurice and Katia Kraft. They were volcanologists in the 60's and 70's, travelling to eruptions world-wide and creatign amazing footage that can be found on RU-vid as well.. Unfortunately they were killed by a pyroclastic flow in Indonesia...

I believe that Krakatoa’s explosion caused a “year without a summer” in the early 1800’s, ruining crops around the world.

Hi Shawn, enjoying your work. I've been watching Merapi (which you discussed here) for a long time. The lava dome volumes posted 21 Sept 2024, on a Merapi live stream, were southwest dome 2,777,900m³, the central dome is 2,366,900m³. On 24 July 2021 these numbers were posted: southwest sector 1,880,000 m3. the volume of the central dome is 2,808,000 m3. So in three years the southwest dome has greatly increased in size, but the central dome has shrunk somewhat. Can you explain possible mechanisms for this? And is the size of a lava dome an indicator of possible VEI?

Thank you Shawn another great video , re: Mt Fuji, I've heard the eruption is over due , I'd guess it is Strato B, Ash clouds and pyroclastic flows , lava and gases, it's has previously wiped out near by villages & caused starvation, behind it there's an active volcano next to Lake Ashi , I've visited a few times years ago it hasn't erupted in a long time, they drill deep holes in it that lets the gases out, they said it helps stop eruptions , has anyone heard other people doing that in other places ?

During 2018 Kiluea eruption, as Fissure 8 was buidling its "river" going north (and then east), some people though they were safe with the lava challenlized and going north and not west. One night, I was all in and had plugged into a police radio feed. One man called 911 "Can't drive out of my house, lava is blocking the street". He was advised to run to the house across from his backyard (west). He got lost in forest in between backyards. Police arrived at the back neighbour, launched a drone with flashing light and they advised guy (over cellular phone) to look for the drone's light. Drone had IR footage which was later released. By the time the guy reached the neighbour west of him and met with police, his house was long gone and lava had progressed halway between the two homes. When I visited later in December, the park staff were very aware of the incident and used it as warning that people really need to evacuate because lava can flow very quickly when it overflows a "river bank" and will innundate an area with little warning. While most lava flows can be predictable, one can never be sure.

ありがとうございます！

I’ve heard that lack of volcanic activity in the Australian landmass is the reason for so much if it not being very fertile. Any truth to that?

A lot of debris went into the Columbia River on the West side of Mt St Helens

Suggestion: Im a pilot that always has to deal with statute mph, kph, and knots or nautical mph... however depending on the aircraft i stick to only one measurement to avoid confusion. Then theres Winds from magnetic or true... altitude in meters or feet... temps in F or C... fuel in gallons or liters... different rates of climb and descent... weight in lbs or kg.... weight and balance in inches or cm... and on and on.... Trust me - it would be better for you and us if you stick with one unit of measure than constantly state several equivalents as if stuttering... especially if you dont remember to say the same first before the other - which messes up my notes. I dont care which system you use but please chose one and stick to it... most students are smart enough to figure out the equivalents later if necessary... thanks.

Thanks!

Thanks Shawn

Thanks!