Thursday, March 17, 2011
Why do people continue living near volcanoes?
Before we discuss about that topic, lets take a look at what happened to Mount Tambora in 1816.
In the summer of 1816, the dense volcanic ash from Mount Tambora's eruption blew into the skies over the Northern Hemisphere. The haze of suspended ash filtered the sun from the people and crops below. Unseasonably low temperatures caused frost, crop failure, famine, disease and death across Europe and North America. Historians refer to this isolated event as "The Year Without a Summer
After the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora, thick layers of ash ruined crops on the islands of Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi and Sumbawa. The resulting famine throughout Indonesia turned so severe, islanders sold themselves as slaves to traders and gave away their children in exchange for rations of rice.
But still, to this day, there are people living near Mount Tambora as if nothing had happened and nothing is going to happend.
WHY?
If we are to ask ourselves this question, many of us will be able to come up with one very common answer. The answer is,
the land is fertile. Which means, the soil is great for farming. When lava starts to overflow, the lava becomes a source of nutrients for the plants to grow.
The minerals inside the lava acts as a form of fertilizer for plants.
Another reason is that the
land is cheaper, the
soil is rich and grows ,example, wine very well.
In some cases,
poverty is the reason why people continue to live near volcanoes, they have always lived there and do not have enough money to move.
However there are many other reasons why people have and continue to settle near to volcanoes.Volcanoes attract millions of visitors every year, for different reasons. As an example of the wilder side of nature, there are few things that can beat seeing an erupting volcano blowing red hot ash and rock thousands of feet into the air.
Even the less active ones that are just puffing out steam and smoke are
impressive sights and
attract tourists from around the world.
Here are a few photos of the eruption of mount tembora and people living around volcanic areas.
VolcanoeGeo
3:33 AM
