Off the shelf maps help mitigate volcanic hazards
January 21, 2009
This is a map of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat, indicating the potential hazards given differing volumes of material in the pyroclastic flow. Credit: Barry Voight, Christina Widiwijiyanti; Penn State
(PhysOrg.com) -- When volcanoes erupt, pinpointing the regions at high risk for lethal hazards and deciding whether or not to evacuate a resistant population comprise the most difficult problems faced by hazards managers. Now a team of volcanologists has a program that maps potential problem areas quickly, taking much of the guesswork out of decision making and evacuations.
"We wanted to be able to predict the areas affected by pyroclastic flows from volcanoes," said Christina Widiwijayanti, post-doctoral fellow in geosciences. "Pyroclastic flows and surges are the phenomena that kill most people when volcanoes erupt."
A pyroclastic flow consists of hot rocks, ash and superheated gases that rapidly flow down from the area of dome collapse on a volcano. Pyroclastic surges are similar, but less dense. They are a kind of hot ash hurricane that can escape the confines of river valleys. Both types of currents are dangerous and frequently lethal.
"In many volcanic crises, a hazard map for pyroclastic flows and surges is sorely needed, but limited time, exposures or safety aspects may preclude fieldwork, and insufficient computational time or baseline data may be available for adequately reliable dynamic simulations of future pyroclastic flow or surge events," the researchers note in a paper published in the Bulletin of Volcanology, Online First.

Enlarge
This is a lethal pyroclastic flow and surge in progress at Mt. Merapi, Indonesia. Credit: M. Mongin, Penn State
The researchers, working with Steve P. Schilling, U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory, looked at an existing procedure created by Schilling called LAHARZ, a geographical information system (GIS) method intended to map hazard zones for volcano-induced mudflows.
"The approach worked for water-saturated mud flows, we thought maybe it would work for hot pyroclastic flows," said Barry Voight, professor emeritus of geosciences. "So we looked at the eruption data and developed some new ways of forecasting areas of impact, particularly for the ash hurricanes."
The researchers used data from eruptions of a variety of volcanoes including the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat; Mount Merapi, Indonesia; Mount Unzen, Japan, and Colima, Mexico to develop a predictive equation for mapping the hazard. The equation considered the cross sectional area of the flows, the area covered and the amount of material in the flow, and is embedded in the GIS.
"What we are doing is looking at the volcano to see, for each valley system, how far the hot flows of rock and ash can come," said Dannie Hidayat, post doctoral fellow in geosciences. "We can outline the area of potential surge damage and this can be used by decision makers on whether to evacuate or to put people on high alert to evacuate."
Widiwijayanti and Hidayat have personal interests in volcanoes having grown up in Indonesia in close proximity to dangerous erupting volcanoes. Indonesia has 129 active volcanoes. The slopes of Mount Merapi are the home of a quarter million people and Widiwijayanti's family home is within reach of Merapi ash falls.
"Using this program, we can produce maps long before the eruption takes place and they can be kept on the shelf for immediate use, or we can produce maps as needed as soon as there is an indication of impending pyroclastic explosions," said Widiwijayanti.
The program creates maps that outline where the rock and ash will flow for different prospective volumes of material expelled. The volumes are color coded. Also included are mapped lines that indicate the extent of the hot ashy surge for both high and low volumes.
Currently, the program will map hazard zones for pyroclastic flows that go outward and down from the volcano's dome, but the researchers believe that it could also be applied to those pyroclastic eruptions that are column explosions, throwing up mixtures of rock, ash and gas into the air before they come down and form hot radial currents.
"The topology data is available online at good resolution for worldwide sites, so anyone who has GIS can run the simulation," said Widiwijayanti.
This method has already been used twice in eruption crises: once at Merapi in 2006 and in Montserrat in 2006-2009 to quickly and effectively create pyroclastic flow maps.
"I expect this method to make a difference in volcano hazards mitigation," said Voight. "These maps can be created quickly, in a few days and e-mailed anywhere in the world. We do not need anyone on the ground to study the situation nor do we need a physics-based model to obtain robust curves. This approach saves time and saving time can save lives. We can now avoid being 'too little and too late' in our mitigation response."
Source: Penn State
-
Congo receives help from space after volcano eruption
Jan 22, 2010 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Cassini Provides Virtual Flyover of Saturn's Moon Titan
Mar 24, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (6) |
0
-
Scientists map soils on an extinct American volcano
Oct 20, 2008 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
0
-
For volcanologists worldwide, a new digital home for all things volcano
Jan 25, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Earth's mantle: New numerical tool describes rock deformation
Jan 24, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Do some geologists actually act a lot like Randy Marsh?
Feb 11, 2012
-
Discrepancy between oxygen and carbon-dioxide levels
Feb 09, 2012
-
where gems are found in the world
Feb 09, 2012
-
Wind Waves in Reservoir ~ Wind run-up and Wind set-up
Feb 08, 2012
-
Balance of oxygen in the atmosphere
Feb 01, 2012
-
The case for a methanol-based economy
Jan 30, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Earth
More news stories
Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation
Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.
7 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Political leaders play key role in how worried Americans are by climate change: study
More than extreme weather events and the work of scientists, it is national political leaders who influence how much Americans worry about the threat of climate change, new research finds.
Feb 06, 2012 |
5 / 5 (6) |
73
NASA budget will axe Mars deal with Europe: scientists
US President Barack Obama's budget proposal to be submitted next week for 2013 will cut NASA's budget by 20 percent and eliminate a major partnership with Europe on Mars exploration, scientists said Thursday.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 10, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
55
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...
Study shows global glaciers, ice caps, shedding billions of tons of mass annually
Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 08, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
14
|
Injured boomers beware: Know when to see doctor
(AP) -- It happened to nurse Jane Byron years after an in-line skating fall, business owner Haralee Weintraub while doing "men's" push-ups, and avid cyclist Gene Wilberg while lifting a heavy box.
Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic
He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.
Europeans protest controversial Internet pact
Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.
Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...
Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher
The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...