Volcanic activities leave traces of destruction in Central and North America
In the last days, we faced impressive volcanic phenomena, which have occurred in Hawaii and more recently in Guatemala. This fact has attracted attention of the international community, leaving everyone afflicted.
What many people do not know is that the geological processes, which caused those volcanic activities, are different as affirms the volcanologist Dr. Mauricio Mora, director of the Escuela Centroamericana de Geologia - UCR (Central America College of Geology – Costa Rica University).
The subduction is a process by which a tectonic plate infiltrates below of another adjacent, and according to Dr. Mora, the Cocos plate is sliding underneath the Caribbean plate, that causes the formation of all volcanic chain in the Central American Region and relates Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala volcanoes.
In Hawaii, Kilauea Volcano is characterized for expelling a big amount of magma, in lava form, through mantle feathers or hot spots. The Hawaii Island Volcanoes possesses an enormous longitudinal extension, but its vertical dimension is relatively small.
In its turn, the Cocos tectonic plate, in Central America, reaches about 100 km deep, what allows its fusion in very hot parts of the mantle, generating explosive and high altitude volcanoes, as the Fire Volcano in Guatemala. The “Fire” was responsible for the death of more than 100 people and devastated many towns with incandescent lava and ashes waves at the beginning of the month.
Although certain volcanoes shows some similarities, each one possesses its particularity through its formation process and act independently.
The volcanoes not only have the power of destruction, but also the ability to create deposits of new parent material to the formation of very fertile soils. In Brazil, Alfisols are originated from basalt weathering, which is a volcanic igneous rock originated from lava cooling. These characteristics gives this soil a natural high fertility conditioned by its high base-cation saturation.
Did you notice how volcano activities can vary accordingly the geological context? Follows our page and stay inside of all our new.
