Thursday, March 13, 2008

Lahar



Do you know what a Lahar is? Well it took some research, but now I know what it is. Lahar is a deadly type of mudflow which is composed of what is similar to pyroclastic material. Lahars also contain water that flows from a volcano. Some information that I will tell you about, is when and where lahars have been located, specific details about Lahars, and many ways that Lahars are formed.
Some specific places of where lahars have been located are in New Zealand. In NewZealand, Mount Ruapehu they had to set up a warning system and later had success after it alerted officials. This happened On March 18, 2007. The New Zealand Conservation, I am sure was proud of their success. The last Lahar eruption at Mount Saint Helen was in March of 1982. In 1991 Mount Pinatubo erupted and it just started out as an eruption, then the pyroclastic flow started going downward toward the river valley. This turned the eruption into a Lahar. Lastly, over the past 10,000 years there have been over 60 different Lahars at Mount Rainer in Washington. Sure these Lahars have been many sizes and different amounts of energy but they have all been destructive.
Specific details are that Lahar originated from the Javanese language of Indonesia. I get why Lahars are extremely dangerous. It’s because of the speed and energy that is contained, plus it comes out of a volcano which means that it’s hot. Lahars can be enormous. The one at Osceola produced by Mount Rainer created a wall of mud about 140 meters or 460 ft deep. Also, if large enough can produce several flows per second. One last thing Lahars can happen even without volcanic activity.
Lahars are dangerous and if you’re ever close to a river valley located by a volcano you could see a lahar.
KP5

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

what is the point of a lahar

Anonymous said...

u have some interesting info for ur blog but u need more words

Anonymous said...

I LOVE your paper! Very good research and nicely written! =) i learned a lot of new info about lahars and i also did a blog on lahars.
JR5