Geological Disaster
Geological disasters occur when natural geological processes affect human activity and cause injuries, loss of life or economic loss. Most geological disasters occur on a large scale and affect a massive number of people. Volcanic eruptions are some of the most deadly geological hazards. Guatemala faces volcanic eruptions regularly, with a recent and most disastrous explosion occurring at Fuego volcano.
The Fuego volcano erupted with little warning in early June 2018. According to Park et al. (2018), the Fuego volcano is the most dangerous volcano with continuous and sudden eruptions. In June 2018, the Fuego Volcano erupted violently without warning and caused massive destruction of property and loss of many lives. In line with Park et al. (2018), the areas surrounding the Fuego volcano were covered in a mixture of hot gas and volcanic rocks moving at high speed and caused the death of 425 people. The eruption affected more than 1.7 million people because towns around Fuego are located at the foothills of the volcano.
Guatemala experiences volcanic eruptions from the various active volcanoes within thet geologic setting. Guatemala is one of the countries in Central America that hosts an impressive array of volcanic landscapes formed over an estimated 2 million years of volcano-tectonic activity (Kuethe, 2019). Since Guatemala sits on a suture of two major faults, a back-arc extension gives rise to a series of basaltic and active volcanoes that erupt with little warning. Therefore, Guatemala hosts several active volcanoes because of its geologic setting.
Volcanic eruptions occur when molten rock called magma rises to the surface and flows to the surface of the earth as lava. Magma erupts from vents on the surface of the earth, and as it rises, gas bubbles form inside before fully erupting. Whereas some volcanic eruptions are not explosive, volcanoes in Guatemala are explosive and destructive. According to the United States Geologic Survey (2019), the explosivity of an eruption depends on the composition of the magma. For instance, in Hawaii, the volcanic eruptions rarely kill people because the lava is thick and sticky, which causes it to move slowly, giving people time to evacuate. The magma in Guatemala volcanoes, on the other hand, is thin, light and runny. In turn, the lava is light and moves at high speed, which destroys property and loss of lives. As mentioned earlier, the tectonic setting of Guatemala also causes volcanoes in the area to be active and basaltic.
The Fuego volcano is likely to have more explosive eruptions in the future. In line with Kuethe (2019), Fuego has sustained a continuous paroxysmal activity since 1999, and its current activity appears cyclical, and is characterized by effusion of lava flows and increase in summit explosive activity, followed by an intense eruptive phase lasting 24–48hrs, producing a sustained eruptive column, continuous explosions, and occasionally also pyroclastic flows, after which explosive activity decreases till the cycle starts anew. Thus, Fuego maintains an explosion cycle which is likely to occur in future.
Volcanic eruptions cannot be prevented using the science of geology. Volcanoes erupt due to natural activities that cannot be controlled by humans. Therefore, the only way to avoid disaster occurring from volcanic eruptions is to predict possibilities of eruptions and evacuating areas likely to be affected by the explosions. The volcanoes can be assessed by assessing seismicity, detecting gases and measuring deformation (Earle, 2015). Predicting volcanoes can prevent loss of life and destruction of property.
In conclusion, volcanoes cannot be prevented, but disaster can be avoided by monitoring active volcanoes. Although Guatemala continues to encounter explosive volcanic eruptions, lives and property can be saved by monitoring the volcanoes and evacuating people before explosions.