volcanoes, you all know. If you have a solid grasp of geographical knowledge, you can even talk about the formation of volcanoes to the world's largest volcanic belt .
But knowing that you know, seeing it with your own eyes is another thing.
So this time, when Iceland, two weeks after the “gentle” eruption of a 6,000-year-old Geldingadalur volcano, the tourists also struggled to see the volcano— — Those who live nearby, go and see on foot; those who are a little farther away, drive the car to see; those who are not satisfied with reaching the foot of the volcano, control the drone to fly to the crater to take pictures...
It’s just that, most of them are watching the excitement. To talk about the professionalism of "seeing" volcanoes, one has to look at professional volcano monitoring stations.
People who go to Iceland to see volcanoes
Human volcano monitoring station
What do you want to "see" at the "volcano monitoring station"?
Certainly cannot stare at the eruption above the surface like ordinary people. It also needs to know what happened to the volcano before it erupted. After all, no volcano erupts for no reason, but their "underground activity" is invisible to the naked eye.
So, in order to build an excellent "volcano monitoring station".The staff needs to determine several monitoring points around the volcano: volcanic seismic survey points, volcanic gravity survey points, volcanic deformation survey points, and volcanic fluid survey points.
Through these monitoring points, the staff must monitor a lot of data caused by magma activity in real time. For example: Does rising magma cause earthquakes or mountain deformation? Will the temperature rise change the geomagnetism? Are there any abnormalities in the gravity field, hydrology and other parameters of the volcanic area?
If an abnormality is found, it must be reported in time.
Geldingadalur Volcano
But "volcano monitoring station" is not a panacea. Especially when facing harmful substances after volcanic eruption, such as the most lethal pyroclastic flow.
In 1902, the Pele volcano in Martinique erupted, and the billowing pyroclastic flow killed 30,000 people in a single shot, and the island’s largest city was destroyed;
In 1980, Mount St. Helens in the United States erupted , directly blowing up half of the local mountain. A giant pyroclastic flow killed 57 people in nearby towns;
In 1991, the Unzen Fugendake volcano in Nagasaki, Japan erupted. The collapse of the lava dome caused a high-speed pyroclastic flow along the valley.Killed 41 rescue team members, journalists and 2 volcanologists who were investigating the scene after the disaster...
And this is all based on the establishment of the "volcano monitoring station".
pyroclastic flow
The largest scale in two thousand years, Changbai Mountain has become a key target
Although the current volcano monitoring is still unsatisfactory, there are better than nothing, after all. Before the risk, any hint may save some lives.
Scientists have also listed several more dangerous volcanoes as key observation objects around the world. Among them is China's Changbai Mountain, a volcano that has set a record of eruption within two thousand years.
Changbai Mountain
Changbai Mountain is regarded as an "alien" in the volcano.
Generally speaking, most of the world's volcanoes are located at the junction of different plates. But the location of Changbai Mountain is far away from the "junction of plates". But this does not hinder its activity in the slightest.
According to records, the earliest eruption time of Changbai Mountain was Quaternary about 2 to 3 million years ago. This eruption formed the volcanic channel at the bottom of Changbai Mountain Tianchi. Immediately afterwards, eruptions occurred in 600,000, 300,000, 200,000, 80,000 years, and more recently in 946, 1597, 1668, and 1702.
In addition to these few times, around 1000 BC, Changbai Mountain also experienced a very strong eruption. It is said that the volcanic material after the eruption drifted directly to northern Japan, 1,200 kilometers away, along the wind. This kind of explosive power can basically be regarded as the largest volcanic eruption that erupted in 2000. After this eruption, a volcanic vent about 4.5 kilometers wide and 1 kilometers deep appeared on Changbai Mountain, which was later filled with water to form the Tianchi we see now.
Changbai Mountain has also become one of the volcanoes we focus on monitoring.
The bad news is that now Changbai Mountain may start to move around again.
Since 2002, researchers have been monitoring the gas coming out of Tianchi. In June 2002 alone, there were many volcanic earthquakes in the area. In August and October 2003, there were earthquakes of over 3 magnitude in the Changbai Mountain area. On November 15, 2003, it was even more exaggerated. There were more than 160 small earthquakes in the area in one day.
The elevation of the area centered on Changbai Mountain Tianchi basically rises by about 3 mm every year. This just shows that the magma below Changbai Mountain is not peaceful, and the continuous injection of magma underneath is raising the height of the local ground.
2019,The data in the research report of the Royal Society is more intuitive. The data inside indicate that the ground uplift rate in the Changbai Mountain area is accelerating. From 2016 to 2019, a total of 10 earthquakes occurred around Changbai Mountain, and the height of the ground uplift has reached 7 li meters.
Does this indicate that the Changbai Mountain volcano will erupt in a short time? No one can tell. The only certainty is that it has been more than 300 years since the last eruption. If Changbai Mountain were to pour out the "accumulation" of 300 years at once, the losses caused would be difficult to predict.
The documentary "I am a scientific man" is specially sponsored by Changan Trust.
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