Natural Disasters
Volcanoes and Earthquakes
Hazardous Places
Sumbawa, Indonesia
Located east of Lombok, in the West Nusa Tenggara province, Sumbawa is a beautiful island found in Indonesia. On this island, there are 412,000 people present. The majority of the population is Muslims. They grow different types of rice and raise water buffalo, goats, and cattle. It has wonderful sandy beaches and famous waves. Seafood is delicious and fresh. Peaceful waterfalls draw much attention from residents and tourists. It’s a nice quant place to live.
Dangerous Place
When the Australian Plate slides under the Eurasian Plate, it forms destructive volcanoes in the Sumbawa area. The Tambora volcano was composite. When the land drifts apart and makes an opening for magma, it creates composite volcanoes. This can also make horrific earthquakes. There’s a volcanic arc called the Sunda, located along those tectonic plates as well. There are 76% of the world’s volcanoes in this area. This part has many very dangerous volcanoes such as, Tambora and Krakatoa. The famous Tambora volcano lies on convergent boundaries. It also lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire. This all can make Indonesia a risky place to live.
Experts Say
In Indonesia there are around 155 active volcanoes. More than 10 events of earthquakes in the last decade have also occurred in this area. The VEI index of Tambora was a 7. This volcano happens to still be active. Experts say that it may erupt soon. Signs of ash are venting 4,600 feet above it. It’s still unknown how immense it will be. The 1815 Tambora disaster left Sumbawa with around 1% of their population left, almost 100,000 perished. There was a cooling of the world. Tsunamis were caused as ongoing affects. All vegetation and wildlife was lost. People living in this area could be in possible danger and may need to leave their homes in case of another tragic event.
Sumatra, Indonesia
The beautiful life
Lying North of the Sundra Straight, and east of the Indian Ocean lays the island of Sumatra. Sumatra is an island that is part of Indonesia, and is fairly big, holding over 50 million people. Nature is the primary attraction of Sumatra. With its gloomy green jungles, its calm fish filled lakes, and its tall vast volcanoes. Someone may think it is the perfect place to live, others may think not.
Not so beautiful anymore.
Sumatra is located right in the fault between the Eurasian Plate, and the Indian-Australian Plate, which creates a convergent boundary. Plates can move towards each other, creating compression. This makes a subduction zone, where one piece of land is submerged under the other land mass, which causes disastrous volcanic eruptions. When the landmass compresses against each other it not only makes volcanoes, it makes major earthquakes happen too. Earthquakes happen from compression by land crimping toward each other until the rock crumbles causing vibrations in the ground. These plates cause damage to every square mile in the island.
The Disasters
Dating back to 1883 when the volcano Krakatoa struck, Sumatra’s coast was hit by the tsunamis set off by this terrifying eruption. This killed over 20,000 people, 300,000 were injured, and thousands of people lost. Not only with death came destruction. Damages costing Millions of dollars to repair. Not only do volcanoes affect Sumatra, but earthquakes do to. In 2004 an earthquake struck right off the coast of Sumatra, sending tsunamis crashing into the island. This killed 230,000 people, and injured many more. Just last year there was a huge earthquake off the coast and it had a worldwide affect. This powerful earthquake detonated many smaller ones like a domino effect located all around the world costing millions of dollars in damage. Not only big devastating disasters happen here though. Hundreds of Small earthquake happen each day in Sumatra. People don’t realize these though because of the small vibrations. Despite the disasters, Sumatra is a beautiful place to live and to visit.
Ishinomaki, Japan
Ishinomaki is a city located on the eastern part of Japan. This city is full of large open plains and lots of people. The average climate in ishinomaki is nice and sunny with a chance of earthquakes.
where is that at?
Ishnomaki sits on the Philippine pate. Next to the pacific and Eurasian plates. Ishinomaki is still under reconstruction from the last earthquake and tsunami.
Sounds fun.
Ishinomaki is a hard place to live. In Ishinomaki there are at average 3 to five earthquakes a week. though it is a beautiful city and filled with opportunity, it is a very earthquake active city.
Summing it Up
Sources
"Global Volcanism Program | Volcanoes of the World | Volcanoes of ..." 26 Feb. 2013
"Powerful 8.6-Magnitude Earthquake Triggers Tsunami ... - ABC News." 2012. 26 Feb. 2013
"Japan sits atop four colliding tectonic plates | The Manila Bulletin ..." 26 Feb. 2013
"M4.5 - 50km ESE of Ishinomaki, Japan 2013-02-16 01:30:07 UTC." 2013. 26 Feb. 2013