Sleeping volcanoes: what danger they pose

Volcanoes - fire-breathing mountains, a place where you can look into the bowels of the Earth.Among them are active and extinct.If active volcanoes from time to time are active, the eruptions of extinct is no information in the memory of mankind.And only the structure and the rocks composing them, allow to judge about their turbulent past.

between are sleeping or dormant volcanoes.They are characterized by the absence of vigorous activity for many years.

dormant volcano

Separation of dormant volcanoes and acting very tentatively.People may simply not know about their activity in the not too distant past.

Sleepers are, for example, the famous volcanoes in Africa: Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Rungve, menengai and others.Eruptions them was long gone, but on some streams of gas rising light.But knowing that they are in the zone of the Great East African graben system, we can assume that at any moment they can wake up and show itself in all its power and danger.

Hazardous calm

sleeping volcanoes can be very dangerous.These well-suited proverb about the quiet pool and devils in it.The history of mankind remembers many cases where a volcano long considered extinct, or even asleep, woke up and brought a lot of trouble to people living in the neighborhood with him.

The most famous example - the famous eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed except Pompeii, a few towns and many villages.The life of Pliny the Elder, a famous military leader and scientist of the ancient, broken in connection with it.

Interrupted sleep volcanoes

Ruiz volcano in the Colombian Andes considered asleep with 1595.But on Nov. 13, 1985-the first he denied it broke out a series of explosions, one stronger than the other.Snow and ice are in the crater and on the slopes of the volcano, began to rapidly melt, forming a powerful gryazekamennye flows.They rushed into the valley of the river La Gunilla and reached the town of Armero, located 40 km from the volcano.The flow of mud and stones attacked the city and surrounding villages raging mess thickness of 5-6 m. Died about 20 thousand people, Armero has become a huge mass grave.Could be saved only by those residents who at the beginning of the eruption rose to the nearest hills.

ejection of gas from the crater of the volcano Nyos caused the death of more than 1,700 people and a large number of cattle.But he has long been considered extinct.It even formed the crater lake.

Volcanoes of Kamchatka

Kamchatka Peninsula - the focus of a large number of active and dormant volcanoes.Extinct they considered it would be wrong, because there is a limit of collision of lithospheric plates, which means that any activity of tectonic movements can awaken dormant formidable forces of nature.

long believed extinct volcano Unnamed located south Kluchevskoy.However, in September 1955, he was awakened from sleep, eruption, clouds of gas and ash rose to a height of 6-8 km.However, this was only the beginning.Long eruption peaked March 30, 1956, when a powerful explosion sounded, snesshy top of the volcano, forming a deep crater with a diameter of up to 2 km.The explosion destroyed all the trees at a distance of 25-30 km in the district.A giant cloud of hot gas and ash rose to a height of 40 km!Fine particles also fell at great distances from the volcano.And even at a distance of 15 km from the power of the Nameless was half a meter layer of ash.

As the eruption Ruiz formed a stream of mud, water and rocks that swept the river Kamchatka, which is almost 100 km.

sleeping volcanoes of Kamchatka are very dangerous, because they are similar to the infamous Mount Vesuvius, Mont Pelee (about. Martinique), Katmai (Alaska).They sometimes occur explosions that are more densely populated areas would be a disaster.

example is the eruption and Shiveluch in 1964.On the power of the explosion can be judged by the size of the crater.Its depth is 800 m and diameter - 3 km.Volcanic bombs weighing up to 3 tons flew a distance of 12 km!

Such powerful eruption in the history of Shiveluch occurred more than once.In the small village of Keys archeologists managed to dig out a settlement, covered with ash and rocks centuries ago, before the arrival of Russian Kamchatka.

threat to humanity

Some scientists believe that it is dormant volcanoes could cause a global catastrophe that will destroy humanity.At the same time they are talking about long-extinct giants, such as Yellowstone in North America.Supervolcano, after its last eruption left a caldera 55 km to 72 km, is located in "hot spots" of the planet, where the magma is close to the earth's surface.

And giants sleeping or close to awakening the world quite a lot.

sleeping volcanoes (list)