Success in life
Chaitén and Etna comparison essay
Chaitén is a 2.5km wide and 4km long volcano that is located in the south east of Chile and erupted for the first time in around 9,400 years on Friday 2nd May. The volcano is a caldera which is situated above a subduction zone where the Pacific Ocean plate is consumed beneath the South American continental crust. The volcano is composed of viscous rhyolitic lavas and pyroclastics and is typical of the magmas rising through the young fold mountains of the Andes. The eruption is said to have been triggered by a string of earthquakes that occurred on 30th April. Here is a diagram showing how Chaitén is located above a subduction zone formed where the Nazca and South American plates collide. In this subduction zone melting produces magma that rises towards the surface:
Mount Etna is situated in Sicily, Italy and has become Europe’s highest volcano at 3.31km long and most active volcano, with its history stretching as far back to over 5000 years. Similar to Chaitén, Mount Etna’s volcanism stems subduction but this time of the African Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate as shown by the diagram below. Unlike Chaitén, Mount Etna is a stratovolcano that erupts basaltic lava, which has low viscosity and is consequently able to travel significant distances.
Since AD 1600, Mount Etna has seen 60 flank eruptions and many summit eruptions. One example is in 1669 where extensive lava flows from Mount Etna engulfed the village of Nicolosi and another was in 1928 when a large lava flow destroyed the town of Mascali in just two days. A more recent example is in 2002-2003 where Mount Etna erupted and threw up a huge column of ash that deposited material as far away as Libya, 600km south across the Mediterranean sea. Such eruptions have led to potential hazards such as seismic activity connecting with eruptive activity which is the same as volcano Chaitén’s eruption being triggered by a series of earthquakes. The
Chaitén is a 2.5km wide and 4km long volcano that is located in the south east of Chile and erupted for the first time in around 9,400 years on Friday 2nd May. The volcano is a caldera which is situated above a subduction zone where the Pacific Ocean plate is consumed beneath the South American continental crust. The volcano is composed of viscous rhyolitic lavas and pyroclastics and is typical of the magmas rising through the young fold mountains of the Andes. The eruption is said to have been triggered by a string of earthquakes that occurred on 30th April. Here is a diagram showing how Chaitén is located above a subduction zone formed where the Nazca and South American plates collide. In this subduction zone melting produces magma that rises towards the surface:
Mount Etna is situated in Sicily, Italy and has become Europe’s highest volcano at 3.31km long and most active volcano, with its history stretching as far back to over 5000 years. Similar to Chaitén, Mount Etna’s volcanism stems subduction but this time of the African Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate as shown by the diagram below. Unlike Chaitén, Mount Etna is a stratovolcano that erupts basaltic lava, which has low viscosity and is consequently able to travel significant distances.
Since AD 1600, Mount Etna has seen 60 flank eruptions and many summit eruptions. One example is in 1669 where extensive lava flows from Mount Etna engulfed the village of Nicolosi and another was in 1928 when a large lava flow destroyed the town of Mascali in just two days. A more recent example is in 2002-2003 where Mount Etna erupted and threw up a huge column of ash that deposited material as far away as Libya, 600km south across the Mediterranean sea. Such eruptions have led to potential hazards such as seismic activity connecting with eruptive activity which is the same as volcano Chaitén’s eruption being triggered by a series of earthquakes. The