Mention the global occurrence of volcanic eruptions in 2021 and their impact on regional environment. UPSC IAS Mains 2021 General Studies (Paper – 1)
A volcano is an opening or rupture in the earth’s surface that allows magma (hot liquid and semi-liquid rock), volcanic ash and gases to escape. The volcanic eruption could have implications for the local and regional environment like earthquake, landslides, lahars (mudflows), ash and thunderstorms. 2021 witnessed several volcanic eruptions viz. Mount Sinabung (Indonesia); Klyuchevskoy (Kamchatka, Russia); Fournaise (Réunion); Mount Etna (Italy); and Erebus (Antarctica).
Impact of volcanic eruption on the environment:
- Volcanic eruptions are responsible for forming new rock on the Earth’s surface.
- The gases and dust particles thrown into the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions have influences on climate.
- Volcanoes have also caused global warming over millions of years during times in Earth’s history when extreme amounts of volcanism occurred, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
- Even though volcanoes are in specific places on Earth, their effects can be more widely distributed as gases, dust, and ash get into the atmosphere
- Volcanic eruptions are generally preceded by increased seismic activity.
Most of the active volcanoes on earth occur on the Circum-Pacific Belt, also referred to as the Ring of Fire. Volcanoes are a natural exogenic phenomenon that cannot be avoided, but developing disaster risk resilience will surely be a step in the right direction.
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