A Dangerous Natural Phenomenon In the video Killer Volcanoes archaeologist discovered human skeletons in London that were buried together. This discovery left scientists with unanswered questions like why were they buried together and the location of the burial. They discovered that these people died in the mid 1200’s, which helped them exclude the black plague as a cause of death. They soon discovered that these people died as a result of famine caused by cold weather that killed their crops. Nearly 30 percent of the population died as a result especially poor people. Based on the fact that their crops were killed by cold weather scientist predicted that this was caused by a volcanic eruption. Scientists explain that a …show more content…
In order to discover more about the volcano, glaciologists analyzed ice from the North Pole which is close to where the skeletons were found. They analyze ice because it traps particles that were in the atmosphere during that year, because of this they discovered that there was a large eruption during 1258 because there were large amounts of sulfuric acid in the ice. Now that they have actual evidence that an enormous volcano caused the deaths, scientists begin to look into the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. They also found out that the volcano’s eruption affected the South Pole, so they determined that they needed to look for the volcano near the equator. The chemical composition of a rock also helped them narrow down their search because the composition is like fingerprints. The chemical composition of each rock is different and says a lot about the location where it was formed. That is why they were trying to find pumice in these locations because pumice is rich in gas and it forms when lava solidifies. They found large amounts of pumice in Indonesia, which has the most volcanoes in the Pacific and is also the least …show more content…
They only make assumptions in the beginning in order to test their hypothesis, however they try to find evidence to support their ideas. That is why these scientists analyzed ice caps to find sulfuric acid and looked for locations that had large amounts of pumice. When scientists used pumice to determine the location of the volcano, I was able to understand the importance of the chemical composition of a rock and how it’s like a fingerprint. I also learned that human beings are not the only ones who record history because earth also does this. I did not know that ice caps trapped particles of the atmosphere in the year it’s freezing. It’s interesting that earth records history and that there are people who use this information to discover more about the past and help predict the future. Before watching this video I only believed that volcanos were dangerous because the lava could kill people and destroy land. However, after watching this video I fully understand that eruptions are dangerous because it releases gases that create drops of sulfuric acid that cause the earth to cool. Volcanic eruptions are out of human control because it’s a natural phenomenon and scientists can only try to determine when the next event will