The Great Volcanic Date.

The Great Volcanic Date

My “date” was with my friend. She is interested in subjects like natural disasters, geology, and paleontology. She also knows that I love using Google Earth to explore countries such as Australia, Italy, and Spain. One thing that we talked about when I was showing her Google Earth is that it can be used for more than just exploring the Venice or the inside of the Sydney Opera House. Google Earth actually provides useful information that you can obtain while you are taking a look at the object you are analyzing. For example, Mount Vesuvius’s height and overall story was something that interested us both. We had no idea that Vesuvius was the cause of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. As we discussed the Vesuvius explosion, we researched a little bit more into the eruption itself. We discovered that the blast was a hundred-thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings in 1945. If the volcano were to erupt again, millions could be killed.

One thing I would love to learn about regarding volcanoes themselves is what causes a blast so significant that it can bury cities and wipe out an entire population. Ashlee and I were interested to look at other significant volcanic eruptions in history. Another eruption that stood out to us wat the Mount Saint Helens eruption in 1980. We found out that not only was that eruption one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in the United States, but it also caused one of the largest landslides in Earth’s history!

Learning about volcanoes with my friend was incredibly enjoyable. We had no idea just how destructive volcanoes and volcanic ash could be. It looks like we will be doing some more Google Earth research in the near future!