Mt. Baekdu Has Become Active Again

Song Minhee (200804046)                            

Professor Jon

English Writing  

23 June 2010

"Mt. Baekdu Has Become Active Again"

Do you remember the skies of Europe are crowded by thick clouds of ash? It seems as if sky blacked out could happen to me soon. As I have read in the newspapers recently, Mt. Baekdu stands a chance of erupting in four or five years. Prof. Yoon Sunghyo said that Mt. Baekdu eruption would be more destructive than Iceland. That's why I'm going to tell you how volcano erupts and its aftermath.

How does a volcano act and erupt? First a volcano makes something called magma from melted rock. The magma goes through a circulation. It has to form at the bottom of the volcano and then start its way up the main vent, a hole that is in the volcano and when the volcano is ready to erupt the lava is at the top of the main vent. The magma goes up the main vent slowly while it is still getting hotter. When the magma is about half way up the main vent it turns into lava, a very hot liquid which burns the remaining rocks from the magma. The lava slowly continues up the main vent. While going up the lava continues to get hotter and hotter. Ash and rocks are collected and the lava is getting hotter and hotter while the lava is continuing its way up the main vent. When the lava is at the top of the main vent the volcano erupts. The lava blasts out of the volcano along with ash, rocks, and a cloud of dust that is very thick. The ash and rock crumble to the ground, but the lava is either moving down the volcano side very slowly or at a high speed. Volcanoes can damage themselves in the explosion. A volcano literally blows its top off. All this could happen in Mt. Baekdu as well. If the threaten become a reality, how many countries it will have effects on?

A weather seminar held late June and Prof. Yoon Sunghyo posed the treat about Mt. Baekdu eruption there. According to his research, when Mount Baekdu would explode again as it did a thousand ago, the most constructive eruption could be susceptible in terms of outperforming Iceland. And then China would be most damaged, followed by North Korea, Russia, and Japan which suffer from it directly.

The following is what the eruption will affect our country. I can't help pointing out an aftermath of Korea. It seems that South Korea would definitely be under the disaster because ashes will permeate eastward as well as southward. Even though raining could help to precipitate them in the summer, there will be two successive side effects. One is concerned with air pollutions; the other is breathing difficulties caused by the pollution.

Taken together, I introduced process of a volcano's activity to you. On this, I showed you the problems related with available eruption of Mount Baekdu. So do you agree with my opinion concerning the threat to burst? And do you begin to pay attention to the re-active mountain? I think it's time to keep our eyes on it.