It seems that in recent years some of the most serious dangers have occurred. Its enormous destructiveness goes hand in hand with the suffering of the people involved. Many of us will wonder why such disasters could not have been prevented in times of modern technology and high scientific knowledge. But just like the weather, volcanoes or earthquakes cannot be influenced by human intelligence. Life would not be life if we could control everything, although it is difficult to understand why these terrible things happen.
I have written this article to explain a bit about the nature of volcanoes and earthquakes.
Especially volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are devastating natural hazards that are difficult to predict and respond to.
However, examples such as Montserrat, Mount St. Helens, Heimaey, the San Francisco earthquake, and the Mexico earthquake illustrate the differences in terms of predicting and responding to these hazards.
Volcanic eruptions are easier to predict than earthquakes, since minor earthquakes are often the first “sign” of a subsequent volcanic eruption. The example of Mount St. Helens underscores this, as the first signs of an upcoming volcanic eruption could be seen as early as three months before the actual eruption. These signals can be minor earthquakes or even the production of gas in a volcano shows that it is ‘active’.
Earthquakes are more difficult to predict as they occur suddenly with little or no warning. However, both earthquakes and volcanoes can be monitored and observed by seismographs, tilt meters, lasers, GPS, and observation. Also, some animals like catfish can be used to predict them as they are very sensitive. It is also possible to create hazard maps such as prediction of volcanic eruptions. These are based on previous eruptions and nearby observations.
The example of Heimaey in Iceland shows that volcanoes can also occur unexpectedly. It erupted without warning on January 23, 1973. In this case there were only 24 hours of minor tremors before a 400-meter fissure opened to spurt lava. The Heimaey is just one example where a volcanic eruption occurred without warning. Other examples like Mount St. Helens and Montserrat show that volcanic eruptions are often easy to predict. Mount St. Helens, for example, resulted in the largest landslide in recorded history with speeds of 70 to 150 miles per hour. But due to the great preparation, only 57 people died. This shows that early warning results in easier and more accurate prediction.
As a general rule, it can be said that earthquakes are more difficult to predict than volcanoes, since they occur without warning.
