Volcanoes, across the globe are the object of both natural fascination and fear. They are believed to give and take life simultaneously. They give life in the sense that they generate fertile soil; yet they do destroy any land in their way too. For that reason, "some say volcanoes are the cradle of life on earth" (AFK Insider, Africa news). However what are exactly volcanoes and how do they evolve? According to WeatherWizKids, (as simple it is in the eyes of a child) " A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. When pressure builds up, eruptions occur. Gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill over or fill the air with lava fragments. Eruptions can cause lateral blasts, lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods. Volcano eruptions have been known to knock down entire forests. An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rockfalls."
There are three types of volcanoes: active, dormant and extinct. In that saying, there are hundreds of volcanoes on the continent of Africa; yet most of them have been dormant. The very few which have erupted in the past centuries have solely consisted of lava and ash. In this instance, there has not been any solid evidence of one in Ghana or its vicinity. Nevertheless, there has been one eruption in Cape Verde in 2014; another country on the West Coast of Africa. It was referred to as "Pico de Fogo." and it even destroyed houses (one in particular you must watch in the video). I find the video quite interesting and informative, although sad to watch a complete house destroyed in minutes. Exactly on November 23 of 2014, according to the source of Earth Scope, Pico de fogo volcano "erupted on the Cape Verde island of Fogo." (Earth Scope).
The government reacted quickly by evacuating residents from the area. Local businesses and airports have been shut down indefinitely. Thanks to the rapid intervention of the agencies in place, except for shattered or lost buildings, loss of lives was not mentioned. Neat, right; well that is exactly what I say. Even though money is lost and people's memories vanished in the blink of an eye, lives that can never be replaced were spared and that too me is Good News. It is quite commendable that there was readiness to inform and measures set aside to evacuate as soon as possible. Still more digital infrastructures are being discussed in the hope to understand more of these events and implement solutions consequently.
People must be well taught to save themselves instead of their belongings. As my beloved dad will always say: " as long as you have breath, you have hope to start over."
Ps: Please make sure to watch the short videos to have an idea of what I am talking about.
Works Cited
http://afkinsider.com/81492/12-recently-active-volcanoes-africa/
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-volcano.htm
thank you for your post and for finding an active volcano 'nearby' to talk about., I also found out that on the east, near Togo, there are some volcanic rocks within the Akwapim-Togo Ranges -see link below-. I am curious of what Togo will find out this week...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/geography/Congo-Democratic-Republic-of-the-to-India/Ghana.html