Whitney Chandler
Role:
Student Studying Abroad
Audience:
Family
Format:
Letter
Topic:
Volcano
You are a student studying volcanoes outside of the U.S. You are particularly interested in one
volcano (of your choice). In your weekly
letter to your family you describe this volcano in great detail. Since your family has little knowledge of
volcanoes, make sure to explain any words they might not understand.
Dear Mom, Dad, and Tyler,
Yesterday
I met with Dr. Smith to take a tour around Mt. Vesuvius. Dr. Smith works as a geologist for the
Italian government. He is in charge of
monitoring Mt. Vesuvius for any possible eruptions. The volcano has been my favorite so far. I think because it is capable of being so
catastrophic if it erupts again. Mt.
Vesuvius sits on the on the boundary of the African plate and European
plate. The European plate sits beneath
the African plate. These boundaries are
where most volcanoes are formed because the heat from the center of the Earth
can travel to the surface. Mt. Vesuvius
is a composite volcano. Composite
volcanoes typically have steep sides because lava flows out and cools forming
the sides. The magma of composite
volcanoes are made up mostly of silica.
Magma is similar to lava but magma is still beneath the Earth's surface
while lava comes out of the volcano. Mt. Vesuvius has a caldera, kind of like a
big hole in the middle, caused by a previous eruption. Caldera's are formed when part of the volcano
collapses after an eruption. Scientists
think Mt. Vesuvius's caldera happened in the big eruption of AD 79.
Mt.
Vesuvius has a long history of eruptions.
It has been on a 20 year cycle but there hasn't been a significant one
since 1944. So it is overdue! This worries a lot of scientists because they
don't think the people living near it take the risk seriously. If Mt. Vesuvius has a major eruption 3
million people could be in danger and the entire town of Naples would be wiped
out, just like Pompeii. In AD 79, Mt.
Vesuvius erupted and killed more than 16,000 people. It was like they were frozen. The ash, heat, lava, and debris killed them where
they stood. The city was practically
preserved by the volcano and scientists were able to study it extensively.
Dr.
Smith is amazed that people live so close to Mt. Vesuvius even though it is an
active volcano. He feels that he has a
good chance of warning the people if an eruption seems to be coming. He and his fellow scientists are monitoring
the magma levels, seismic levels (like rumblings in the volcano), ground
movement, and chemical analysis. Dr.
Smith thinks that once all these things show significant changes they would have
less than a couple weeks to evacuate people.
I really like what Dr. Smith does.
I think I might want to be in charge of monitoring a volcano, maybe the
one under Yellowstone.
Miss and Love You,
Whitney Chandler
No comments:
Post a Comment