The Mystery of Volcano

Sunday, 09 October 2011 11:28

Written by Navid Iqbal

The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, the name of a god of fire in Roman mythology. It is one of the most important natural disasters in any planet. Volcanoes have played an important part in the development of earth and affecting the geography by providing water, atmospheric gas, and other essential materials/nutrients to the environment.

At the time of the formation of any planet it had huge amount hot material called magma. From time to time the upper site of that magma became hard and made the surface but in the deep of the planet there is still magma. Magma, rising from the deep of the planet gathers in a weak portion of the rock called. It is called the magma chamber. When a strong earthquake occurs, the mantle plume a bubble of material which rises to the surface layers from the deep interior of the planet increasing the temperature and pushes the magma gathered in the weak magma chamber on to the surface.

This erupting magma creates the volcano. When magma is erupted onto the surface in the form of lava, it becomes silicate rock. On instance the eruptions of the volcano, magma leaves the chamber composed of slightly different chemicals. Volcanoes are classified into many categories according to their trait. Volcanoes are hazardous to wildlife and humans beings.

Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 caused a heavy ash fall. On that ash fall most of the area was covered with the poisonous ash of the volcano. Without ashes volcano also emit poisonous gases like sulfur- dioxide, which mixes with the water vapor and creates the sulfuric acid. The next result of this is the acid rain. Ashes only emit in the time of eruption but the emission of gases stay alive after the volcano.

These poisonous gases emit from the cracks of the planet. Among these Lava is the deadliest part of any volcano. The flows of mud, rock, and water travel down to the flank. They move down at a high speed of 20 mph to 40 mph. Some of the most extreme cases have lahars with a consistency of wet concrete flowing up to 50 miles. They destroy houses, trees, and huge boulders like a flood. Volcanoes are useful too. The soil around the volcano is very fertile due to the materials from the lava flowing down the volcano. It also brings out valuable materials from the deep of the earth. Though volcano has many advantage and disadvantage, scientists are still craving for finding out the mystery of volcano.