The volcano is moderately young but has erupted several times and most of these eruptions have been somewhat large in size, but overall, Fuji has had 2 mainly damaging eruptions. Any volcanic eruption is normally caused by plate boundaries. Mount Fuji is an island-arc volcano which means that three plates are converging; the Philippine Sea plate, the Eurasian plate and the Okhotsk plate. The volcano’s latest and most damaging eruption was in 1707 called The Hoei Eruption which started as an earth quake on the 11th of November. The earthquake caused the plates to move, which then caused the volcanic plates to move. This saw the start of the volcanic eruption at 10am on the 16th of December which continued until the evening of December 25th. The volcano irrupted because the fuscous magma rose to the surface and blacked the crated pipe and the heat then made it explode. Although it brought no lava flow it released huge amounts of volcanic ash which spread over vast areas around the volcano. Shortly after, violent irruptions started again and went on until 27th of December. Following that, rumblings went on from December 21st and stopped completely on the morning of January 1st.
Mount Vesuvius eruption was caused by two tectonic plates called the African and the Eurasian plates which collided together causing the heavier plate to push under the other and into the mantel where is begins to melt. Some of the mantle’s heavy rock melts which creates a slow moving substance called magma. Because the magma is lighter than its surrounding rock, it begins to rise into the magma chamber. The magma chamber soon erupts and the magma rises to the top of the volcano and out of the main vent, oozing out through cracks and vents on its way.
No deaths were recorded as a direct result of this volcano however many people lost their lives from starvation after the irruption. This was because they were unable to obtain food from their farm land or get to other places. Volcanic ash erupted out of Mount Fuji causing health problems and this sometimes also caused death.
Although it’s still unknown exactly how may people were killed in the eruption, there were around 1,150 remains of bodies found in the ash deposits. It is however thought that this is a vast under estimation of the total amount of deaths affected by the eruption. It is believed that many people were killed mostly by roofs collapsing, falling roof slates or by big rocks thrown out by the volcano. It’s also believed that many people died of suffocation when they inhaled ash and debris from the volcano.
A large river called the Sakawa, flooded frequently for almost 80 years after the irruption. This was because the lava eroded easily in the rain and then sat thickly on the river bottoms. 72 houses and 3 Buddhist temples were burned or crushed on the first day of the irruption. The number of houses fell by 1/3 during the 14 years after Fuji’s eruption. Some villages around Fuji had volcanic ash that was two meters thick on the ground leaving them in great difficulty to move around outside and get out of there house.
When the Roman Empire was only a century old, mount Vesuvius erupted and lava, black stones, some even as big as footballs buried the city of Pompeii, braking branches off of trees and smashing through tents.
Mount Fuji and Mount Vesuvius are both cone shaped and there is alikeness between the bases of each volcano. Both eruptions caused a lot of problems with crops, buildings and houses leaving people very starved and this related to death.
The differences between Fuji and Vesuvius are that Fuji is moderately larger than Vesuvius and there were many more deaths from the eruption of Vesuvius then Fuji. Also, the eruption of Vesuvius contained lava rather than the eruption of Fuji.
In conclusion, this presentation has discussed the major irruptions of Mount Fuji & Mount Vesuvius. They both caused huge disruptions to human life such as large numbers of deaths and the environment such as flooding and destroying tents, buildings and crops. Although these are two very separate volcanoes, this paper highlighted the similarities between them.
From this presentation, I have learnt about volcanoes that in the past, have never heard of and what damages these volcanoes have caused. I have found it hard to find information about these volcanoes, but overall, I have enjoyed doing this presentation.
