Geology Adventures

Geology Adventures

The average person does not notice, nor understand the makings of the environment which surround him or her. It seems only when one travels away from home that the word “world” takes on a new meaning. New experiences can academically and scientifically stimulate parts of oneself that, he or she never knew existed or had an interest in. An understanding of the world around us is an absolute necessity in order to protect and preserve it. More importantly, this required understanding will also reveal both the history and possible future of our fascinating planet. To begin this path to understanding our planet we will embark on a Geology Adventures tour which will not only fascinate, but educate as well. We will first start with an island volcano in the Caribbean Sea, then head north вЂ" northwest to the mid-southern United States to experience some peculiarly located hot springs. Lastly we will travel back the Caribbean Sea, just southwest of the island volcano to another island with every type of coastline found worldwide packed into one island.

There are many different types of volcanoes seen all over the world. Some are seen as the most dangerous and violent in the world, responsible for taking the lives of thousands of people without warning. One of these is our first stop on our tour of Geology Adventures. For its unique behavior as a volcano and its particular type of eruption it has been given its own category known as a pelean-type eruption; Mount PelÐ"©e is considered one of the most deadly, and yet most beautiful volcanoes in the world (Britannica Online, 2007).

Mount PelÐ"©e is located on a “classic island arc” on the Caribbean Island of Martinique in the French West Indies, between Puerto Rico and Venezuela (Lesales, 2007). This particular area is where the Caribbean and Atlantic tectonic plates meet causing the volcano chain of islands in that region. Mount PelÐ"©e is classified as a stratovolcano due to its history of violent eruptions that at one time in 1902 was known to have killed about 30,000 people in the city of St. Pierre located on the island (Britannica Online, 2007). Over the thousands of years and eruptions, Mount PelÐ"©e been layered by hardened lava and ash forming its extrusive structure.

Now considered a dormant volcano, Mount PelÐ"©e’s most recent activity was reported to have occurred from March of 1929 A.D. until December of 1932 A.D. Many pyroclastic landslides and avalanches, otherwise known as pyroclastic flows, occurred during this time that forced many residents of the island to move to escape its danger. The island itself is mostly made up of French speaking residents from various ethnic backgrounds. The residents nick named “The pyroclastic flows and surges, also called nuees ardentes (French term meaning glowing avalanches)” (Lesales, 2007).

Many French and American scientists also travelled and took residence to this region in order to study this distinctive volcano. After the most deadliest eruptions in 1902 that took the lives of about 30,000 people on May 8th and about 1,000 people on August 30th of that year, monitoring stations like Mount PelÐ"©e Volcano Observatory in Fonds-Saint-Denis on the island of Martinique were built, so that the activities of the volcano could be observed and learned from to prevent such losses of lives. The monitoring apparently worked because in March of 1929 it was noticed that Mount PelÐ"©e started having “abnormal fumarollic activity at the summit of the volcano” (Lesales, 2007). The eruptions to follow were less popular in history compared to the 1902 eruption because no lives were lost and minor collateral damages were incurred. Nonetheless, the eruption of 1929-1932 was highly studied and documented by scientists, more so than that of all the previous eruptions combined.

The people of the island have since rebuilt the city of St. Pierre, even living on the slopes of the mountain feeling confident in the work of the scientists and their predictions. However, scientists do believe that it will erupt again and are constantly monitoring it so evacuations can be made in a timely manner to prevent such human catastrophes as seen in 1902. But because of these eruptions, the land on the island of Martinique is rich and fertile forming beautiful and lush vegetative valleys making it a perfect destination to visit on our tour of Geology Adventures.

The next stop in our tour of Geology Adventures is one of the more unique hot springs that exist in the world, Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas of the United States of America (USA). What makes this park so unique is that the hot springs reside in an area that is not believed to be volcanically active. If this is true, then how does the water heat up? As we go through the park and its features, some clues to answer this question will be revealed, though the exact answer, still to this day, is being debated among scientists (Hanor, 1980).

Hot Springs National Park (HSNP) was first explored by a pair of explorers in 1804 named William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter; otherwise known as Dunbar and Hunter. At the time it was believed that such natural phenomena were sources of invigorating and healing powers. This was still believed to be true over 100 years later when Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking relief from his painful symptoms of Polio, first visited and bathed in one of many newly built bathhouses constructed on or near these hot springs. These myths were not disproved until recently when it was discovered that in fact, the waters contained radioactive elements from the processes and materials from which the hot water came from. Since this discovery the water has been treated to remove such contaminants making it safe again for human use (Hanor, 1980).

Nowadays there exists a thriving community of people living and working in the area to support tourism. The town, so appropriately named Hot Springs, in Arkansas “The nation's only city located within a national park” currently contains a population of approximately 30,000 residents (Cities in Touch, 2007). With so many people and their industrialization influencing the area, it was only a matter of time before they affected this natural miracle.

Most hot springs are made up of matrix like fissures and pathways of water all connected together underground. It is believed from scientific study of the region that rainwater collected from the Ouchita Mountains slowly (taking about 4,000 years or moving about 30cm a year) percolates or seeps down through the porous ground (Hanor, 1980). Here is where the uniqueness of this spring comes to play. Since there is no known