Page 29 - IB April 2018

Environment

Volcano eruptions unrelated to climate change

By Nanise Volau and protocols, and develop
scenarios that prepare
GAPS in the Pacific Island’s hazard and mitigate? For Lake Vui
monitoring system have been exposed example if evacu-
after recent volcano activities in Vanuatu, ation of people Lake Manaro
Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. is a possibil-
Volcanic risk management is now in its ity, what is
infancy in the potentially affected coun- involved?
tries of the southwest (SW) Pacific encom- Are there Ambae volcanic
passing Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, areas eruption in Vanuatu.
Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. where people Picture: WWW.NASA.COM
Experts like Professor Michael Petterson should not build
says past efforts toward developing this houses or make gardens?
capacity to what could be considered an • How can local people prepare for disas- in New Zealand or Yellowstone in USA
adequate level have been limited to specific ters and rehearse evacuations or other can potentially kill millions of people di-
scientific studies of individual volcanoes or response activities? rectly and perhaps hundreds of millions
island-based volcano emergency planning • How does a country make sure that of people because of impacts on the global
in affected areas. scientists, bureaucrats and communi- climate (now that the global population is
He says historic volcanic disasters in ties all communicate appropriately and 7.6 billion).
Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu in a timely manner? Petterson said volcanoes are an expres-
and prehistoric events in all countries Petterson said analysis of seismic data sion of earth’s dynamic tectonic activity.
indicate that a volcanic risk management confirmed that the volcano activity con- Earth is made up of surface ‘plates’ that
framework is required for the region. tinue at the level of major unrest state. move around. Where they interact, vol-
Preliminary work that has already been “Predicting volcanic eruptions and as- canoes, earthquakes, mountains, trenches
conducted also indicates that a high degree sessing their likely impacts on people and may be produced.
of volcanic risk is apparent in the SW Pa- infrastructure is a complicated business,” “If it were not for volcanoes and earth-
cific, with large populations living on and Petterson said. quakes there would be no Pacific Islands
around the many active volcanoes in each Volcanoes erupt in different ways and and no Pacific people. We should be thank-
of these countries. with different frequencies. Yasur volcano ful to our volcanoes and earthquakes,”
For a number of years, it has been pro- on Tanna, Vanuatu continuously erupts he added.
posed to address this issue by developing but the people of Tanna can live with this Petterson who was the former director of
an integrated project that would enable situation. Rabaul in PNG has been erupt- the Geoscience Division of the South Pa-
islands to develop comprehensive volcanic ing since 1994 and had a major impact on cific Community based in Suva until April
risk management plans. However, efforts the township of Rabaul. Hawaiian volca- 2017, said eruption signs are unrelated to
have been piecemeal and have not been noes continuously or semi-continously climate. He said signs such as increasing
coordinated at the regional level. erupt in a relative quiet manner. Savo earthquakes, increasing hot spring activ-
Vanuatu is considered one of the world’s volcano near Honiara has erupted around ity, increasing gas emissions and the land
most prone countries to natural disasters, four times in 400 years, most recently moving up or down around a volcano may
with half a dozen active volcanoes as well around 1840. A new island has appeared (if we are lucky) provide signs.
as regular earthquakes and cyclones. in Tonga that represents the top of a vol- In general, volcanic eruptions vary from
Petterson, a Professor of Geology at cano that periodically erupts. highly explosive and highly dangerous
Auckland University of Technology said According to Petterson, scientists can (such as super volcanoes) to mild localised
there is a need for scientists to work with evaluate the probability of an eruption eruptions that pose little danger. He said
disaster managers and government, as but cannot predict precisely when this the modern way of understanding volcano
well as local communities, industries and will happen. is to research every individual volcano as
non-government agencies to incorporate “Sometimes there is a lot of warning. they are all different.
their research into policy and action. Sometimes little or no warning,” Petterson “In essence scientists examine the his-
He said with data and analysis including said. And for the people in the Pacific, tory of eruptions and the style of erup-
recent studies, the challenges now are; volcanoes can hurt them. They can erupt tions. They map hazard zones around
• How can scientists inform local people large quantities of very hot material (up the volcano.
in the Pacific who are living around to 1100 degrees Celsius). “If funds and resources are available
the volcano about how to mitigate and He said the worst Pacific volcanic erup- volcanoes are monitored by a range of
prepare for disasters? tion in terms of casualties in recent times scientific equipment that takes recordings
• How can governments best monitor was Mount Lamington in PNG in 1951. on local earthquakes (seismometers), gas
volcanoes? About 3000 people were killed. The big- activity, fumarolic activity, and ground
• How can government work with the gest ever killer-eruption geologists know deformation.
local regional and national agencies of was in 1815 in Indonesia when Mount “Satellites can also assist, particularly
and authorities to develop hazard Tambora killed 71,000 people. if they provide regular imagery of volca-
warning and assessment materials He said supervolcanoes such as Taupo noes,” Petterson said.
Islands Business, April 2018 29