Case Study of Mount Pinatubo in the area of Zambales

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to know the impact of the volcanic eruption of the Mount Pinatubo in the 20 th
century and make the people to be aware that every single day in our life there will be always danger in it.

Scope

The study is mainly concern about the Mount Pinatubo at the area of province of Zambales that took few
lives of existence in the town. The main agenda of the study is to research about the environment,
economy and social of the said case study. The mentioned study was to have an impact and reaction
among the resident around that town.

Best Practices

The effects of the eruption

It is estimated that around 2 million people were affected by the eruption. Roughly 80 000 hectares of
farmland were buried under ash, disrupting the livelihoods of 5000 000 farmers. the total losses were
$711.4 million.

At least sixteen commercial aircraft made damaging encounters with the ash cloud ejected by the June 15
eruption, as well as others on the ground. The encounters caused loss of power to one engine on each of
two different aircraft. A total of 10 engines were damaged and replaced, including all four engines of a
single jumbo jet.

In total, 364 communities and 2.1 million people were affected by the eruption, with livelihoods and houses
being damaged or destroyed. More than 8,000 houses were completely destroyed, and a further 73,000
were damaged. In addition to the severe damage sustained by these communities, roads and
communications were damaged or destroyed by pyroclastic flows and lahar throughout the areas
surrounding the volcanoes. Total losses in 1991 and 1992 alone were estimated at 10.6 and 1.2 billion
pesos respectively, including damage to public infrastructure estimated at 3.8 billion pesos.

Impacts Of The Eruption

Social Impacts
As said before, the authorities of the Philippines succesfully moved over 60,000 away from their homes.
While only 847 people were killed in the event, the possible number of deaths could have been in the
thousands if not for the evacuation of theses people. More than 8,000 homes were destroyed, as well as
73,000 that were damaged by the earthquake. Children missed out on their education as many of the
school there had been destroyed. The Aeta people, who were the indegenious people who lived close to Mt
Pinatubo had to move into government provided settlements as their villages were destroyed. The small
plot of land to grow crops that they were given was not enough to sustain them and they had to find jobs in
casual lowlevel farming. Due to this the culture of the Aeta people suffered.

Economic Impacts
The total damage dealt by the eruption was 10.6 billion pesos, or around 3 hundred million US dollars. The
economy produced by the Mt Pinatubo area was crippled, and because 10% of all the money that the
Philippines made was from the Pinatubo area, the economic development of the entire country also
became hindered. The agriculture of the area was halted, with fields where crops were grown were
destroyed and the livestock killed. This meant that many farmers no longer had the means to support
themselves and other people who depended on their crops to grow.

Environmental Impacts
The arrival of heavy rain brought about lahars and mudflows that displaced houses and destroyed crops.
Even today in the wet seasons the people in Mt Pinatubo have to be careful to not be growing crops in
those seasons, as the potential for lahars to destroy them are relatively high. The lahars also contaminated
the various river systems of the Pinatubo area by blocking them with volcanic sediment. Sulfur dioxide that
was emmited from the volcano reached record amounts, with over 15 million tons ejected into the
atmosphere. This increased the amount of acid rain that was formed, which kills ecosystems and damages
buildings.
Prediction, Prevention, Aid and Monitoring
Prediction
What they 75,000 people were evacuated
actually did due to accurate predictions.
There was no monitoring until
the 3rd of April but
seismometers were put into
place.
The United States Geological
Service helped to predict the
disaster
What they Set up permanent monitoring
could have points or use satellite images to
done look upon volcano site for
changes in land surface.
Prevention Preparation
75,000 people Evacuation camps built for
evacuated up to a refugees.
radius of 30km. USA air Warning sign like gas and
force helicopters steam looked for. Long and
helped. short term aid organized
Alert systems put into especially from the Red Cross
place to warn of and the United States
eruption.
Government Shelters.
Placed strategies for Storage of medical supplies
long term aid and food and water in preparation
disease control in for disaster.
evacuations prepared
for.

Introduction

The second-largest volcanic eruption of this century, and by far the largest eruption to affect a densely
populated area, occurred at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines on June 15, 1991. The eruption produced
high-speed avalanches of hot ash and gas, giant mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash hundreds of miles
across. The impacts of the eruption continue to this day.
In 1991, March 15th, villagers on the northwestern side of the volcano reported that they had felt
earthquakes and tremors happening beneath their town. Over the next few weeks, these earthquakes
increased in intensity and spread through to the whole mountainside. April 2nd was the day when the
volcano showed signs of volcanic activity, which gradually became more common and stronger. Large
amounts of sulfur dioxide were recorded to have been coming from the summit of the volcano, indicating
that a volcanic eruption was likely to happen. After May 28th, the amount of sulfur dioxide that was being
emitted from the volcano increased dramatically, suggesting that pressure was building up from inside the
volcano, showing more signs of potential volcanic activity. On June 7th, a large eruption was seen,
generating an ash column that was over five km high.

Due to the high chance that a potentially violent volcanic eruption might have occurred, evacuation plans
were made to aid people in avoiding the damage that the volcano might have made. During the eruption
60,000 people in total were moved from their homes to nearby places like Manila and Quezon City.

Body of the Case Study

Problem
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo caused significant damage to the economy and infrastructure of
surrounding cities. The volcanos eruption also had significant global environmental effects. Mount Pinatubo
ejected roughly ten billion tons of magma onto the surrounding landscape and millions of sulfur dioxide gas
into the atmosphere, spreading an ash cloud over much of the Earth.

Analysis of Alternatives
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Pinatubo is
located in the central portion of the Zambales mountain range. The volcano lies 55 miles northwest of
Manila. With an elevation of 1,486 meters, Pinatubo is composed of andesite and dacite.
Before the eruption, Mount Pinatubo was covered with vegetation and was home to more than 30,000
people, who lived in villages on its slopes. Thousands of others lived in the valleys surrounding the volcano,
including U.S. military personnel stationed at Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station. Before 1991,
there had been no record of volcanic activity.

Continuing Hazards
Even after more than 5 years, hazardous effects from the June 15,1991, climactic eruption of Mount
Pinatubo continue. The thick, valley-filling pyroclastic-flow deposits from the eruption insulated themselves
and have kept much of their heat. These deposits still had temperatures as high as 900F (500C) in 1996
and may retain heat for decades. When water from streams or underground seepage comes in contact with
these hot deposits, they explode and spread fine ash downwind. Since the climactic 1991 eruption, ash
deposits have also been remobilized by monsoon and typhoon rains to form giant mudflows of volcanic
materials (lahars).

Eruption
An eruption of steam blew from the top of Mount Pinatubo on April 2, 1991. After receiving the report of
activity, coupled with a series of earthquakes in the preceding weeks, seismologists began observations of
Pinatubo's seismic activity. This was the first time that monitoring had occurred at Pinatubo. Since there
was no background information on seismic activity in the area, it was difficult to determine if the occurrence
was normal or not.
As the frequency of earthquakes increased and steam continued erupting from the volcano, people
recognized the seriousness of the situation. On June 7, when magma oozed out to form a lava dome, local
authorities declared the highest alert and ordered evacuations for a 20-kilometer radius around the volcano.
By June 10, about 25,000 people had evacuated from the villages around the volcano, and over 14,000
families evacuated the nearby U.S. military base in Clark. On the afternoon of June 15, 1991, Pinatubo's
most intense eruption began. Pyroclastic flow deposits filled valleys, and a huge plume of volcanic ash and
gasses escaped into the atmosphere. In the aftermath, Mount Pinatubo had formed a crater of 2.5-
kilometer diameter.
In order to prevent more casualties, the evacuation radius was increased to 40 kilometers. However, the
volcanic ash and rain from Typhoon Yunya, which hit at the same time, formed heavy muds that rained
down on densely populated areas. About 200 people died from collapsed roofs.

Recommended Solution
Fortunately, scientists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and the U.S. Geological
Survey had forecast Pinatubo's 1991 climactic eruption, resulting in the saving of at least 5,000 lives and at
least $250 million in property. Commercial aircraft were warned about the hazard of the ash cloud from the
June 15 eruption, and most avoided it, but a number of jets flying far to the west of the Philippines
encountered ash and sustained about $100 million in damage. Although much equipment was successfully
protected, structures on the two largest U.S. military bases in the Philippines--Clark Air Base and Subic Bay
Naval Station--were heavily damaged by ash from the volcano's climactic eruption.
Nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide were injected into the stratosphere in Pinatubo's 1991 eruptions, and
dispersal of this gas cloud around the world caused global temperatures to drop temporarily (1991 through
1993) by about 1F (0.5C). The eruptions have dramatically changed the face of central Luzon, home to
about 3 million people. About 20,000 indigenous Aeta highlanders, who had lived on the slopes of the
volcano, were completely displaced, and most still wait in resettlement camps for the day when they can
return home. About 200,000 people who evacuated from the lowlands surrounding Pinatubo before and
during the eruptions have returned home but face continuing threats from lahars that have already buried
numerous towns and villages. Rice paddies and sugar-cane fields that have not been buried by lahars have
recovered; those buried by lahars will be out of use for years to come.

Results
The 1991 eruption of Pinatubo, culminating in a 9-h climactic plinian and pyroclastic-flow-producing phase
on June 15, produced about 5 km3 of dacitic magma and is the second largest volcanic eruption of the
century in terms of magnitude (volume of magma produced). Eruption columns rising above the vent and
off the pyroclastic flows reached in excess of 35 km in altitude and emplaced a giant umbrella cloud in the
middle to lower stratosphere that attained a maximum dimension of over 1,100 km in diameter. This cloud
injected about 17 Mt of SO2 into the stratosphere (twice the amount produced by the 1982 El Chichn
eruption), and this SO2 immediately began to convert into H2SO4 aerosols, forming the largest perturbation
to the stratospheric aerosol layer since the aerosol cloud of Krakatau in 1883.
The aerosol cloud spread rapidly around the globe in about 3 weeks and attained global coverage 1 year
after the eruption. The SO2 release was sufficient to generate over 25 Mt of sulfate aerosol, and peak local
and regional midvisible optical depths of up to 0.4 were recorded. Global values after widespread dispersal
and sedimentation of aerosol were about 0.1 to 0.15, with a residence time of over 2 years. This large
aerosol cloud caused dramatic decreases in the amount of net radiation reaching the Earth's surface. This
was certainly the largest atmospheric perturbation by an aerosol cloud in this century, producing a climate
forcing two times stronger than the aerosols of El Chichn. The lower stratosphere also warmed
immediately after the eruption and has cooled to the lowest temperatures recorded since then, causing
changes in atmospheric circulation.
Effects on climate were an observed surface cooling in the Northern Hemisphere of up to 0.5 to 0.6C,
equivalent to a hemispheric reduction in net radiation of 4 W/m 2, and an overall cooling of perhaps as large
as -0.4C over large parts of the Earth in 1992-93. Climate models appear to have predicted the cooling
currently occurring with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The Pinatubo climate forcing was stronger than
the opposite, warming effects of either the El Nio event or anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the period
1991-93.
Atmospheric composition also underwent some remarkable changes that were due to the Pinatubo
aerosols, most notably that mid-latitude ozone abundance reached its lowest level on record during 1992-
93. The total ozone amount was 2 to 3% lower than in any earlier year, with the largest decreases in the
regions from 10 to 20S. lat and 10 to 60 N. lat. The Southern Hemisphere "ozone hole" increased in
1992 to an unprecedented 27x106 km2 in size, and depletion rates were faster than ever before recorded.
The atmospheric impact of the Pinatubo eruption has been profound, and it has sparked a lively interest in
the role that volcanic aerosols have played in climate change. It has been an extremely important and
timely event to the atmospheric sciences, permitting climate models to be tested and tuned, and showing
that a powerful eruption providing a 15 to 20 Mt SO 2 release into the stratosphere can produce sufficient
aerosols to offset global warming trends and severely impact the ozone budget.
The volcano today is a safe place to visit. The crater of the volcano is a beautiful lake that is 2.7 kilometers
wide and the water is crystal clear. However it is advised not to swim in the water of the lake.
Trekking Mount Pinatubo is a popular activity among locals and foreigners alike. The mountain is located
only about 3 hours away from Manila. It is easy to get there by oneself but it is best advised to join a tour.
Although the volcano is still active, it is very closely monitored and any activity will most likely be predicted,
thus trekking there is a safe activity, especially when it is done in the presence of local guides who know
the area.

Bibliography
http://mountpinatubo.net/
https://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/self/
http://study.com/academy/lesson/mount-pinatubo-facts-eruption-effects.html
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs113-97/
http://shakingandbaking.weebly.com/ledc-volcanic-eruption-mt-pinatubo.html
http://rdeposit.blogspot.com/2013/05/case-study-eruption-of-mt-pinatubo.html
http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/GCSE/Year11/Managing%20Hazards/Volcanoes/mount_pinatubo.htm
http://shakingandbaking.weebly.com/ledc-volcanic-eruption-mt-pinatubo.html