What are the long-term effects of volcanic eruptions on wildlife?
Melissa Tothero
Hi Melissa,
Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I think that actually the
long-term effects of an eruption on wildlife are usually quite small.
Certainly at Mt. St. Helens scientists saw that both plants and animals
returned to the utterly devastated areas within only a year or so of the
eruption.
It is usually the short-term effects that are really bad. For example,
there was a very big eruption of Santa Maria volcano (Guatemala) in 1902.
The eruption itself killed a few hundred to perhaps 1500 people as well as
thousands of birds. Pretty soon there were so many insects including
disease-carrying mosquitoes that eventually 3000-6000 people died
from malaria. (This information came from Volcanoes of the World, by Tom
Simkin and Lee Seibert).
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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