EruptionnearYemen2007

There was a volcanic eruption that occurred in 2007. The name of this natural disaster was called Jebel at Tair in the country of Yemen. However, it has several other names that it goes by Bird Mountain, Djebel Teyr, Jabal al Tayr, and Jibbel Tir. The island is located south of Saudi Arabia ( as seen in Figure 1), which is part of a group islands on the Red Sea known as the Seven Sisters.  Yemeni coast is in a volcanically active part of the Red Sea, according to geologists. The last time the island witnessed a strong eruption was in 1883. Yemen geologists linked the volcano to seismic activity to happen around the same time with the eruption. According to Yemen Earthquake Observation Centre, it had recorded tremors in the Red Sea from September until the volcano’s eruption ( as seen in Figure 2). They measured a 4.0 to 4.3 magnitude on the Richter scale, with five of the large ones recorded on September 30. Authorities like Yemen Islands Development Authority (YIDA) saw smoke vapors coming up from the opening vent. Geologists who reported saw straight-line cracks that allow out smoke clouds. The eruption start date was of Jebel at Tair was September 30, 2007. It erupted off a tiny oval island of the Red Sea, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air. There were no immediate reports of death. Its volcano type is called a Stratovolcano. It has a submit elevation of 807 feet. The volcano rises from a 1200 meter depth in the south-central Red Sea, to forming an oval-shaped island about 3 kilometers long. The island is off the Yemen coast, and has mostly been used as a military base. It is very interesting that you do not see people populating that particular area. Rather you will most likely see military groups populating the island. It is the northernmost known Holocene volcano in the Red Sea area. Holocene is a name given to the last 10,000 years of the Earth's history.  The Red Sea has a volcanic area of 69 Holocene volcanoes including Jebel at Tair. They are all located in the Yemen marine border, according to the Global Volcanism Program database.  Historically, this island is from the Holocene age, and explosive eruptions were reported in the 18th and 19th centuries. Geologists say Jebel at Tair is on a major fault line. They last saw a volcanic eruption in the late 19th century. During the event 21 soldiers were evacuated earlier before the actual eruption took place. Unfortunately, they were several missing reports indicating eight military personnel not turning up. There were only two survivors that were rescued from the waters, four casualties pulled out, and the two remaining persons are still missing and presumed dead. Yemen authorities said they had fifteen personnel injured and eight personnel fatalities. On the other hand, the marine environment has not been affected by the volcano. The only parts that had major damages were the areas on which lava fell down. Overall, there is little information known about this eruption. My paper will also recognize some perspectives on reliable information on the event and cover some inconsistencies. I have learned in class about stratovolcanoes. This type of explosive volcanic landform is symmetrical. They are the most common. The landform has lower slopes that seem gentle, and it rises steeply near summit. Stratovolcanoes have infrequent eruptions, however range of hazard. Typically they are found above active subduction zones. They have alternating layers of pyroclastic debris, and moderate viscosity solidified lava flows. Viscosity is a part of the three V’s in volcanology that is useful when forecasting eruption styles. The V’s consist of viscosity is how the magma flows or piles up, volatile describes how it oozes out harmlessly or blast out explosively, and volume correlates fairly well with eruption intensity. For example, Jebel at Tair a stratovolcano had s pewing lava and ash blasting out hundreds of feet into the air, and forcing Yemeni authorities to evacuate a military base. In this case referring to stratovolcanoes the overall eruption style is violent, dangerous with pyroclastic flows and air-fall ash blasting out. Pyroclastic flow has a fluidized mixture of hot ash and steam. The event is very hot and has many components of toxic gases. It can come with great speeds, and ultimately being very deadly. The ash flow can travel kilometers over hills and even cross lakes. Yemen officials linked several small earthquakes to the eruption. I have learned that earthquakes are usually just precursors that an eruption is about to take place. For example, using seismograph records of volcanic eruptions can track underground movement of magma and be used to project the likelihood that a volcano might erupt. Precursors to eruptions include harmonic earthquake tremors, which are low frequency rolling ground movement, changes in the level or tilt of the ground surface, and changes in erupted gases. It is difficult to predict volcanic eruptions. Currently it is impossible to predict a volcanic eruption well in advance. However, there is a lot of pressure on scientists to forecast such events in case of evacuations of cities and towns. Ultimately, scientists can provide long-term forecasts, and once the activity begins they can often warn of threatening eruptions. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">I have a few ideas why there is little know about this event. Yemen lacks settled population but has plenty of military installations on it. Like the <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">US Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Army populated nearby. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is not even clear how many people were stationed on the island. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The area is <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">used for naval control and observation because large cargo ships pass nearby. According to the Canadian Armed Forces they had eight missing personnel. Furthermore, discrepancies on number of people effect by this event lead to concern. Since the area is heavily populated by military bases I happen to think that the military and even NATO does not disclose personal information so easily with the public. Perhaps they like to cover events up so that everything in their region looks just fine. Overall, they have their own sense of government and could do as they please about releasing reports on casualties and missing person’s reports. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">According to Military headlines, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Yemen is a poor tribal Sunni Muslim country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Perhaps since this area is heavily populated in poverty the people do not have enough funds to gather volcanic eruption data. They do not have sufficient funding to gather up sophisticated state of the art technology to come up with the proper means. They simply have a problem of allocating their resources to be able to come up with accurate missing people and deaths related to Yemen 2007 eruption. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In conclusion, a volcano erupted on a tiny island off the cost of Yemen, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air. There were no immediate deaths but at least eight people went missing. Its landform is of a stratovolcano. Jebel at Tair lies on a major fault line and its eruption type is very hazardous. The island is used as a military base and luckily most of military personnel were safely evacuated. Ultimately, there is little information that is released by the Canadian government. Overall, I am satisfied with my findings on this 2007 Yemen eruption. The event is to my likings, and I am happy with my topic. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> =  = =  Work cited  = [|http://www.cnn.com] [|www.volcano.si.edu] __ [|www.military.com]  __ __ [|http://yementimes.com]  __ __http://news.bbc.co.uk__ __ Hyndman, D. Natural Harzards and Disaters.__ New York: Thomas Brooks/Cole, 2006.