To what extent can the impacts of volcanic hazards be managed? (20 marks)
In this answer, I will explain why the government are able to manage the impacts of volcanic eruptions but can’t prevent them.
One way of volcanic impacts can be managed is through the lava channels. This is when concrete blocks or placed on the flanks of volcanoes where lava flows are common. The impacts of lava flows is common for shield volcanoes where there are more regular effusive eruptions of basalt IK magma. The lava channels guide the direction of lava flow away from property or crops which protects them. This can be evidenced in Italy where lava channels have been placed on the basis of stratovolcanoes where vineyards are found.
However, we are unable to prevent the impacts of lava flows from happening. This is because these tend to be found from volcanoes where effusive eruptions are frequent. Therefore, assuming it’s pahoehoe flows, means it poses no hazard to humans. Therefore, there doesn’t need to be strategies to prevent lava flows from happening. Though there are still environmental impacts.
Another impact of volcanic eruptions is pyroclastic ash fall outs it creates. This is when free term magmatic eruptions lead to a large quantity of ash and debris to be shut up into the atmosphere. This can have global effects depending on the size of the eruption. For example, the Icelandic eruption in 2010, lead to ash reaching the UK mainland, where it had down 95,000 flights leading to £102 million loss in tourism. This is because the ash fallout had disrupted navigational equipment on aircraft which made flying dangerous. In this case, the impact was global, which would have made the impact harder to manage if there was a way to manage the impact at all.
Additionally, the impacts could not have been prevented. In the context of the Icelandic eruption in 2010, the lava had made contact with the glaciers which had sat near the mouth of the volcano. Therefore, this contact led to a free to magmatic eruption producing an ash fallout and that was miles wide. Therefore, unless the body of water was a dam or other man-made store water, the impact could not have been prevented.
Overall, I think to some extent that the impacts of volcanic eruptions can be managed, especially local impacts like lahars and lava flows. Although, they can somewhat be prevented. This is because there are natural events, but only are considered hazards because of the human influence on the land. Therefore, the only way we can prevent the impact is if we set up exclusion zones around the volcano. This can be evidenced in Montserrat, where exclusion zone which covers half the island has been set up to prevent impacts from the volcanoes.