The hazards presented by volcanic activity have the greatest impact on the poorest members of the worlds population. To what extent do you agree with this view?

Chile is officially classed as a developed company but has a low income per capita at USD 14900 (roughly half of America’s income) at the time of Chaiten’s unexpected VEI 5 eruption in May 2008- having not erupted for over 9000 years and being in a remote area it was not actively monitored. The initial ash plume forced 5000 people to evacuate their homes and flights to be diverted. The event itself was not sufficiently monitored by Chilean teams and the USGS was brought in to report properly, revealing that environmental damage was brought by lahars and ash fall isolating smaller communities and heavy ash blocking rivers, causing groundwater contamination, and damaging up to 90% of the nearest town. 13.6% of the country’s labour force is employed in agriculture, so the effects of asphyxiation on animals were stark. Despite this there was only one recorded death (from secondary causes) and the government effectively implemented exclusion zones and provided money to affected families and small businesses. The lack of monitoring was aided by the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, so the relatively undeveloped country is now well prepared for the future.

Eyjafjallajökull, the 2010 volcano in the highly developed country of Iceland that grounded European flights (to prevent an incident similar to the British Airways Flight 9 to Auckland, in which all four engines failed while passing through a volcanic ash cloud) throughout April 2010 primarily affected MEDC populations. At only 1 on the VEI, the effect of the subsequent ash cloud only spread to Europe. Unlike super-volcanoes (such as Mount Tambora), global weather was not affected and there were no famines, aided by solar activity at the time being unhindered by sunspots. So in this case, the effects on the richer population was worse than on the poorer locals- farmers were temporarily evacuated from the immediate area but would in fact benefit from the fertile ash covering their fields, and the unusually low output of fluoride from the volcano meant that there was little threat of fluoride poisoning to grazing livestock.

Mount Etna, in Sicily, is very a well monitored Decade volcano (particularly high priority due to its high levels of activity and close proximity to the majority of Sicily’s population) and not a significant threat to human life, currently producing long term Strombolian eruptions produced by subduction of the African plate under the Eurasian one. As part of Italy it ranks as 24th most developed country in the world (“very high HDI”), although Sicily itself may not be at the higher end of the spectrum. As the lava in Etna is produced by melting crust, the composition is basic and leads to these long but not very threatening eruptions that rank lowly on the VEI, although in history it has produced much more dangerous and explosive eruptions, destroying cities such as Catania more than once, and more recently destroying Mascali in two days. Despite this, good planning and evacuation mean that only 77 deaths have been recorded as a result of Etna’s centuries of eruptions.

Technology to predict volcanic eruptions has yet to be perfected, but can still make a big difference to the effects of a volcanic eruption (but ironically technology itself, particularly air travel, is often largely affected). Therefore poorer countries without the funds or knowledge to carry out predictions are at a higher risk of suffering due to volcanic eruptions. Poorer countries are also less likely to have restrictions on exclusion areas and planning permission, resulting in many people living close to fertile volcanoes without proper roads or communications that would allow for evacuation. Recovery periods are also lengthened when a country lacks funds, and countries in debt may struggle to receive sufficient aid from other countries.