How do volcanoes affect pepole?
Octavia
Perry
Hello again Octavia,
Volcanoes affect people in many ways, some are good, some are not.
Some of the bad ways are that houses, buildings, roads, and fields can get
covered with ash. As long as you can get the ash off (especially if it is wet),
your house may
not collapse, but often the people leave because of the ash and are not around
to continually clean off their roofs. If the ashfall is really heavy it can
make it impossible to breathe.
Lava flows are almost always too slow to run over people, but they can certainly
run over houses, roads, and any other structures.
Pyroclastic flows are mixtures of hot gas and ash, and they travel very
quickly down the slopes of volcanoes. They are so hot and choking that if
you are caught in one it will kill you. They are also so fast (100-200
km/hour) that you cannot out-run them. If a volcano that is known for
producing pyroclastic flows is looking like it may erupt soon, the best
thing is for you to leave before it does.
Some of the good ways that volcanoes affect people include producing
spectacular scenery, and producing very rich soils for farming.
I hope you keep up your interest in volcanoes.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
Other Categories
Other Questions
To VolcanoWorld