Well I'm finally back to do more volcanoes!! I've been busy and just haven't taken the time to blog like I should! Things are pretty crazy around here right now! My 25th birthday is Monday(October 1st)! Honestly it's kind of a bitter sweet thing for me. Brithdays are always great and it's always great to celebrate another year of life. But this is not at all where I thought I'd be by 25! 25 was always a big birthday in my mind. It's like the cross over from a young adult to just an adult in my mind. I don't know why it's that way in my mind but it is! I feel like I've wasted too much time on things and people who didn't deserve my time. I feel like I've resisted change way too much. I feel like I've spent way way too much time hiding so many pieces of who I am. So my goal is to make my 26th year and all the years I have afterwards different than the previous 25! This year is going to hold many changes for me. I am going through a real huge growth period right now and really starting to not just understand and come to terms with but accept somethings! I need to find a way to look in the mirror and see something that makes me proud. I don't really see that right now. I'm obessed with the song Reflection by Christina Aguliera right now because of that. That is the message in that song to me. Another change is... I'm going to be an Aunt!! This was unexpected and the circumstances could be better. BUT this baby is a BLESSING! I can't wait to meet this baby and spoil him/her rotten! I can't wait to be the aunt I in all honesty never felt I had! Anyway on to the main point of this post, more volcanoes!!
6. Anakrakatoa("child of Krakatoa")
This volcano is a little bit complicated. We've all heard of Krakatoa. But in case you haven't I'll give you a bit of history before talking about Anakrakatoa. Krakatoa was located in Indonesia between the islands of Java and Sumatra. It was actually an entire island. In 1883, Krakatoa erupted with one of the biggest volcanic events in history. It destroyed 3/4 of the island and caused huge tsunamis. It was rated on the VEI scale(a scale used to gage volcanic eruptions) as a 6. The eruption was equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT! The sound of the massive eruption is considered to be the loudest sound ever heard! It was heard 3,000 miles away! 165 villages where completely destroyed and 132 were damaged. In total, 36,417 people died as result of the eruption and the tsunami's it triggered. Volcanoes are going through a constant cycle. They grow and grow and grow and then erupt and destroy themselves and then they rebuild(Mt. St. Helens which I will discuss in another blog is a great example of this in our modern era). Krakatoa destroyed it's self in that eruption but it wasn't through. A new volcano island is there now, Anakrakatoa! This volcano is growing very quickly and is very very active. It is growing 16ft per year! I like this volcano because of it's history and because it's still making history! Just in the last month there was a good sized event(largest eruption there in 10 years) where a large river of lava was sent running down the mountain and smoke and ash filled the sky! Here is a video of the lava a few days later and there are many more videos on YouTube of eruptions of this volcano if you want to check them out!
5. Vesuvius
Mt. Vesuvius is located in Gulf of Naples in Italy. It's the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe( Etna(which I will talk about in another blog) and Stromboli are located on islands). Vesuvius is another one most people have heard of because it is talked about alot in history classes in school! This volcano is known for one very historic eruption that occurred in 79 AD. But it erupted many times before and erupted many times since. The last eruption of Vesuvius was in 1944(2nd picture above is from that eruption) but because of the millions of people who live very close to this volcano it is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world! The height of the volcano has changed many times in it's life time but currently it stands at 4,203 ft and has a very deep caldera due to collapses during several different eruptions! It's not as beautiful as other volcanoes but in my opinion the large caldera makes it interesting to look at!
As I previously stated the most well know eruption of this volcano occurred in 79 AD. Most of what is known about the eruption it's self was learned from the writings of one of the few people who survived. His name was Pliney the Younger. He was a Roman administrator and a poet(among other things). He wrote 2 letters 25 years after the eruption describing the eruption in great detail. He wrote the letter to tell someone about the death of his uncle, Pliney the Elder, who had raised him and was killed in the eruption. The eruption lasted 2 days. It started off with a huge column of ash and smoke shot very high into the air and was followed by very large, extremely hot pyroclastic flows. The pyroclastic flows covered the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum killing an estimated 16,000 people. This eruption is well known because scientist discovered the ash made casts of thousands of people in the final minutes of their lives! I believe this stuck with people because it kind of put faces and stories with numbers. You here about 16,000 people dieing but our brains just can't comprehend that kind of suffering. These people suffered and died a brutal death. But we've learned so much from being able to study catastrophic eruptions like this one and Krakatoa! Those people did not die in vain! We have better technology and are better prepared to deal with eruptions. We better understand volcanoes and can better predict when they will erupt. That little bit of knowledge saves lives! That is what I love about this volcano. It shows the toll large eruptions have on the human populations who live around these volcanoes and reminds us we can't stop studying these beautiful monsters! They hold so many clues to how our great planet works and to human life in general!
I hope you guys enjoyed this blog! Planning on jumping into 2 more volcanoes tomorrow! This has reignited my love for them!
