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FORCES OF NATURE >> DISASTER SCIENCE
NATURE’S FURY
The Force of Mother Nature The Science Behind Natural Disasters W RIT TE N BY C A MERON COBB
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ornadoes and earthquakes and floods… oh my! While the world is full of quiet bliss and tranquility, natural disasters are reminders that Mother Nature can be just as brutal as it is beautiful. Thanks to technology, human intelligence, and our basic survival instincts, we’ve learned over time how to better predict and prepare for such catastrophes. But the real thanks goes to science because without understanding how these events occur, we wouldn’t be able to continue our discoveries on how to handle some of Earth’s toughest challenges. Let’s explore the science behind some of the wildest forces of nature.
VOLCANOES Volcanoes are so much more than just being everyone’s favorite go-to science experiment. Let’s forgo the paper mâché and vinegar, though, and try out another analogy. You know those elaborate cupcake-baking videos, the ones where someone takes a fancy metal tube and digs out the middle for a surprise filling? Well, similarly, a volcano is just a mountain with a hollowed-out core. Only instead of buttercream; a volcano’s center leads to the less-tasty filling of a molten rock pool. Okay, so maybe there are some differences, but just like preparing cupcakes, volcanoes need to start from scratch. A volcano begins as magma that breaks through the Earth’s upper mantle to the surface, and the buildup of pressure causes the first eruption, according to weatherwizkids.com. From here, volcanoes actually continue forming and growing due to eruptions over time. 20 |
OUR TOWN MAGAZINE
July/August 2019
Volcanoes erupt whenever plates within the Earth’s crust move, which causes friction and thus a volcanic eruption occurs. Eventually, the oozing lava cools, then hardens, and the ash settles. This process adds to a volcano’s size – meaning the more it erupts, the bigger it gets. PHOTOGRAPHY: JACK EBNET, NIKOLAS NOONAN