What makes a volcano erupt?

2nd draft 200503193 Sungkyoung Cho

 

 

     The eruption of volcano makes everything burst into flame. According to a myth or fairy tales the ancient people regarded a volcano eruption as the anger of the god. Whenever the explosion occurred, people reckoned the god wanted to punish them. However the real cause is just natural reaction among elements under the earth, as everybody knows.

     The most common cause of the eruption is high-pressure.The pressure is essential element for the volcano eruption because magma has massive gas, so it can be easily gushed out only if it has enough stress which is come from common friction. While the oceanic crust is going into continental crust, friction occurs and then the friction generates extreme pressure. This procedure usually happens in a volcanic belt such as the ring of fire in the Pacific Ocean.
 
     Next, there is a special case that causes the the eruption; It is the earthquake. No every earthquake is cause of the spouting of magma. If the earthquake occurs on the plate which is not strong, the earthquake becomes a factor of the burst. When the plates bump each other by shaking, it generates high temperature as well as high pressure. Finally the volcano erupts because the magma is changed into fluid which is usually solid in the low temperature.
 
     The last factor is the rarest one; It's global warming. The catastrophe of Iceland is a good example.I already explained high pressure is one of factors above, conversely low pressure was the factor of the eruption of Iceland. Originally a huge glacier had pushed a volcanic strata for a long time, but the glacier melt out fast and magma's formation activated. A few years ago some scientist established theory that global warming stimulates volcano eruption, yet nobody didn't care about it till Iceland erupted. If somebody had listened it carefully, Iceland could have prepared the calamity.
 
     Nowadays,people find out those factors; pressure and heat. In addition, they established a number of theories about volcano like global warming theory. Even though people study factors of  the volcano eruption, it is impossible to stop or remove them and the geographers cannot estimate everything either. Thinking how powerless we are in front of natural itself, I thought the ancient people might be right in a way.