为什么人们会住在火山旁边(英文)

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2024年7月10日发(作者：)

Why do people live near volcanoes?

At first it may seem odd that people would want to live

close to a volcano. After all, volcanoes have a nasty

habit of exploding, discharging liquid rock, ash,

poisonous gasses, red hot clouds of embers, and

generally doing things that kill people. Yet, throughout

history, people have deliberately chosen to risk all those

hazards and live near them, even on the slopes of active

volcanoes that have erupted within living memory.

They chose to live close to volcanoes because they felt

that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

Most volcanoes are perfectly safe for long periods in

between eruptions, and those that do erupt more

frequently are usually thought of, by the people who

live there, as being predictable.

Today, about 500 million people live on or close to

volcanoes. We even have major cities close to active

volcanoes. Popocatapetl (pronounced

poh-poh-kah-teh-peh-til) is a volcanic mountain less than

50 miles from Mexico City in Mexico.

In short, the main things that attract people to live near

active volcanoes are minerals, geothermal energy,

fertile soils and tourism.

Let’s look at

Minerals

Magna rising from deep inside the earth contains a

range of minerals. As the rock cools, minerals are

precipitated out and, due to processes like the

movement of superheated water and gasses through

the rock, different minerals are precipitated at different

locations. This means that minerals such as tin, silver,

gold, copper and even diamonds can be found in

volcanic rocks. Most of the metallic minerals mined

around the world, particularly copper, gold, silver, lead

and zinc are associated with rocks found deep below

extinct volcanoes. This makes the areas ideal for both

large scale commercial mining and smaller scale local

activities by individuals and small groups of locals.

Active and dormant volcanoes have the same

mineralization, so like extinct volcanoes; they are rich

sources of minerals.

Hot gasses escaping through vents also bring minerals

to the surface, notably sculptur, which collects around

the vents as it condenses and solidifies. Locals collect

the sulphur and sell it.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy means heat energy from the earth.

It's unusual to use the heat directly, by building your

house on top of a steam vent for example, because it's

unpredictable, dangerous and messy.

The heat from underground steam is used to drive

turbines and produce electricity, or to heat water

supplies that are then used to provide household

heating and hot water. Where steam doesn't naturally

occur it is possible to drill several deep holes into very

hot rocks, pump cool water down one hole and extract

steam from another hole close by.

The steam isn't used directly because it contains too

many dissolved minerals that could precipitate out and

clog pipes, corrode metal components and possibly

poison the water supply.

Countries such as Iceland make extensive use of

geothermal power, with approximately two thirds of

Iceland's electricity coming from steam powered

turbines. New Zealand and to a lesser extent, Japan,

also make effective use of geothermal energy.

Fertile Soils

Volcanic rocks are rich in minerals, but when the rocks

are fresh the minerals are not available to plants. The

rocks need thousands of years to become weathered

and broken down before they form rich soils. When they

do become soils though, they form some of the richest

ones on the planet. Places such as the African Rift Valley,

Mt Elgon in Uganda, and the slopes of Vesuvius in Italy

all have productive soils thanks to the breaking down of

volcanic rocks and ash. The Naples area, which includes

Mount Vesuvius, has such rich soils thanks to two large

eruptions 35,000 and 12000 years ago. Both eruptions

produced very thick deposits of ash and broken rocks

which have weathered to rich soils. Today, the area is

intensively cultivated and produces grapes, vegetables,

orange and lemon trees, herbs, flowers and has become

a major tomato growing region.

Tourism

Volcanoes attract millions of visitors every year, for

different reasons. As an example of the wilder side of

nature, there are few things that can beat seeing an

erupting volcano blowing red hot ash and rock

thousands of feet into the air. Even the less active ones

that are just puffing out steam and smoke are

impressive sights and attract tourists from around the

world.

Around the volcano may be warm bathing lakes, hot

springs, bubbling mud pools and steam vents. Geysers

are always popular tourist attractions, such as Old

Faithful in the Yellowstone National Park, USA. Old

Faithful is such a popular tourist feature that it even has

its own 24 hour Old Faithful webcam.

Iceland markets itself as a land of fire and ice, attracting

tourists with a mix of volcanoes and glaciers, often both

in the same place. The wild, raw and barren volcanic

landscapes also attract tourists who want to see what

the early planet may have looked like.

Tourism creates jobs in shops, restaurants, hotels and

tourist centers / national parks. Locals economies can

profit from volcanism throughout the year, whereas

skiing, for example, has only a limited winter season.

In Uganda, a country trying hard to increase its tourist

industry, the volcanic region around Mt Elgon is being

heavily promoted for it's landscape, huge waterfalls,

wildlife, climbing and hiking and its remote 'get away

from it all' location.

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