Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 An introduction to global volcanic hazard and risk
- 2 Global volcanic hazard and risk
- 3 Volcanic ash fall hazard and risk
- 4 Populations around Holocene volcanoes and development of a Population Exposure Index
- 5 An integrated approach to Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland, New Zealand: the multi-disciplinary DEVORA project
- 6 Tephra fall hazard for the Neapolitan area
- 7 Eruptions and lahars of Mount Pinatubo, 1991-2000
- 8 Improving crisis decision-making at times of uncertain volcanic unrest (Guadeloupe, 1976)
- 9 Forecasting the November 2010 eruption of Merapi, Indonesia
- 10 The importance of communication in hazard zone areas: case study during and after 2010 Merapi eruption, Indonesia
- 11 Nyiragongo (Democratic Republic of Congo), January 2002: a major eruption in the midst of a complex humanitarian emergency
- 12 Volcanic ash fall impacts
- 13 Health impacts of volcanic eruptions
- 14 Volcanoes and the aviation industry
- 15 The role of volcano observatories in risk reduction
- 16 Developing effective communication tools for volcanic hazards in New Zealand, using social science
- 17 Volcano monitoring from space
- 18 Volcanic unrest and short-term forecasting capacity
- 19 Global monitoring capacity: development of the Global Volcano Research and Monitoring Institutions Database and analysis of monitoring in Latin America
- 20 Volcanic hazard maps
- 21 Risk assessment case history: the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat
- 22 Development of a new global Volcanic Hazard Index (VHI)
- 23 Global distribution of volcanic threat
- 24 Scientific communication of uncertainty during volcanic emergencies
- 25 Volcano Disaster Assistance Program: Preventing volcanic crises from becoming disasters and advancing science diplomacy
- 26 Communities coping with uncertainty and reducing their risk: the collaborative monitoring and management of volcanic activity with the vigías of Tungurahua
- Index
- Online Appendix A
- Online Appendix B - part 1 (low res)
- Online Appendix B - part 2 (low res)
7 - Eruptions and lahars of Mount Pinatubo, 1991-2000
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 An introduction to global volcanic hazard and risk
- 2 Global volcanic hazard and risk
- 3 Volcanic ash fall hazard and risk
- 4 Populations around Holocene volcanoes and development of a Population Exposure Index
- 5 An integrated approach to Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland, New Zealand: the multi-disciplinary DEVORA project
- 6 Tephra fall hazard for the Neapolitan area
- 7 Eruptions and lahars of Mount Pinatubo, 1991-2000
- 8 Improving crisis decision-making at times of uncertain volcanic unrest (Guadeloupe, 1976)
- 9 Forecasting the November 2010 eruption of Merapi, Indonesia
- 10 The importance of communication in hazard zone areas: case study during and after 2010 Merapi eruption, Indonesia
- 11 Nyiragongo (Democratic Republic of Congo), January 2002: a major eruption in the midst of a complex humanitarian emergency
- 12 Volcanic ash fall impacts
- 13 Health impacts of volcanic eruptions
- 14 Volcanoes and the aviation industry
- 15 The role of volcano observatories in risk reduction
- 16 Developing effective communication tools for volcanic hazards in New Zealand, using social science
- 17 Volcano monitoring from space
- 18 Volcanic unrest and short-term forecasting capacity
- 19 Global monitoring capacity: development of the Global Volcano Research and Monitoring Institutions Database and analysis of monitoring in Latin America
- 20 Volcanic hazard maps
- 21 Risk assessment case history: the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat
- 22 Development of a new global Volcanic Hazard Index (VHI)
- 23 Global distribution of volcanic threat
- 24 Scientific communication of uncertainty during volcanic emergencies
- 25 Volcano Disaster Assistance Program: Preventing volcanic crises from becoming disasters and advancing science diplomacy
- 26 Communities coping with uncertainty and reducing their risk: the collaborative monitoring and management of volcanic activity with the vigías of Tungurahua
- Index
- Online Appendix A
- Online Appendix B - part 1 (low res)
- Online Appendix B - part 2 (low res)
Summary
Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) – asleep for ∼ 500 years – began to stir in mid-March 1991, and produced a giant eruption on 15 June 1991, second largest of the twentieth century. Only that of remote Katmai-Novarupta, Alaska in 1912 was larger. About 20,000 indigenous Aeta lived on the volcano, and ∼1,000,000 lowland Filipinos lived around it. Two large American military bases, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station, added about 40,000 Americans to those at risk. With centuries' of volcanic gas (supply) accumulated in tens of cubic kilometres of molten rock (magma), and with so many innocent people nearby, a disaster was waiting to happen.
Thick deposits from pumice-rich pyroclastic flows formed the lower slopes of the volcano and told a history of infrequent but very large eruptions - larger than any eruption in the history of modern volcano monitoring. Scientists warned that a giant eruption was possible, perhaps even likely, but none had ever been monitored, much less successfully forecast. For two months after the volcano began to stir, small earthquakes and other signs fluctuated without clear, systematic trends. The volcano was teasing the scientists, and the public was profoundly sceptical.
Against the odds, a team of scientists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), assisted by the US Geological Survey, correctly forecast a giant eruption. Evacuations that had been recommended earlier were now enforced and expanded. Over the course of a few days, small precursory eruptions escalated to a spectacular climax on 15 June that swept the whole volcano, killing virtually everything in its path. Avalanches of searingly hot ash and pumice (pyroclastic flows) filled valleys and swept over ridge crests. Tens of centimetres of ash, with weight nearly doubled by rain from simultaneous Typhoon Yunya, caused many roofs to collapse. Loss of life was relatively modest considering the population at risk and the enormous size of the events (∼400 died during the eruption, and ∼500 Aeta children died in evacuation camps from measles). Warnings, coupled with strong visible clues from pre-climactic eruptions, had saved nearly all of the Aeta population, plus an unknown number of lowlanders. Some damage was unavoidable, but much was also averted, especially damage to military assets and commercial jets.
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- Global Volcanic Hazards and Risk , pp. 249 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
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- This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/cclicenses/
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