By Babatunde Jose
In 12 distinctive verses, the Quran outlines the basic geologic concepts of mountains. That mountains are not just the lofty elevations seen on the surface of the Earth, but their downward extensions in the Earth’s lithosphere (in the form of pegs or pickets) is highly emphasized.
In Surah An-Naba (Quran 78) verses 6 and 7, the Quran reads: “Have We not made the earth as a wide Expanse, And the mountains as pegs?”
In several other verses, the Quran emphasizes the role of mountains as stabilizers for the Earth’s outer surface (or lithosphere). See Surat Ar-Ra’d, The Thunder, Quran 13: 3; The Rocky Tract, Quran 15:19; The Bees, Quran 16:15; Surat Al-Anbiya, The Prophets, Quran 21:31; Surat An-Naml, The Ants, Quran 27:61; Surat Luqman, Quran 31:10; Surat Fussila, Quran 41:10; Surat Qaf, Quran 18:6; Surat Al-Mursalat, Those Sent Forth, Quran 77:25-27); Surat An-Nazi’at, Those Who Pull Out, Quran 79:30-32)
Yet, as the mountains are made to act as pegs to offer stability to the earth, they could also bring forth volcanic eruptions which are natural phenomena that could change the world according to their magnitude.
We tend to think that humans can have the most disruptive impact on the planet, that’s really not the case. Natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions are capable of causing dramatic climate change, far worse than what we presently contemplate.
On May 18, 1980, the rumblings of Washington’s Mount St. Helens finally culminated in an eruption that lasted nine hours — and with a force 500 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that country (United States) dropped on Hiroshima.
The mountain lost 14 percent of its elevation and the blast killed everything within 230 miles. 57 people died as a result, making it the most deadly volcanic eruption in U.S. history. But compared to eruptions throughout world history, it was nothing.
Throughout human history, large volcanic eruptions have affected the year-to-year variability of the Earth’s climate and even triggered crop failures and famines. These events may also have contributed to disease pandemics and the decline of agriculture-based societies.
Yellowstone, one of the world’s most famous supervolcanoes, has erupted three times relatively recently in terms of our planet’s history. These eruptions formed the Yellowstone Caldera, which is 72 by 55 kilometers in size and is now the site of the USA’s Yellowstone National Park.
When the Yellowstone Caldera, or “supervolcano,” in Yellowstone National erupts again, it will render a huge swath of North America, from Vancouver to Oklahoma City, uninhabitable. It would have incalculable human and economic consequences.
Here are some volcanoes that blew their tops and rocked the world.
Thera (1645-1500 BC)
The eruptions of Thera (Santorini) between 1628 and 1450 BC constituted a natural catastrophe unparalleled in all of history. The last major eruption in 1450 BC destroyed the entire Minoan Fleet at Crete at a time when the Minoans dominated the Mediterranean world.
In addition, there had to be massive loss of life from ejecta gases, volcanic ash, bombs, and flows. The collapse of a majestic mountain into a caldera 15 km in diameter caused a giant ocean wave, a tsunami, that at its source was estimated in excess of 46 m high. The tsunami destroyed ships as far away as Crete (105 km) and killed thousands of people along the shorelines in the eastern Mediterranean area.
At distant points in Asia Minor and Africa, there was darkness from ash fallout, lightning, and destructive earthquakes. Earthquake waves emanating from the epicenter near the ancient volcano were felt as far away as the Norwegian countries.
These disturbances caused great physical damage in the eastern Mediterranean and along the rift valley system from Turkey to the south into central Africa. They caused major damage and fires in north Africa from Sinai to Alexandria, Egypt.
Volcanic ash spread upward as a pillar of fire and clouds into the atmosphere and blocked out the sun for many days. The ash reached the stratosphere and moved around the world where the associated gases and fine particulate matter impacted the atmosphere, soils, and waters.
Ground-hugging, billowing gases moved along the water surface and destroyed all life downwind, probably killing those who attempted to flee from Thera.
The deadly gases probably reached the shores of north Africa. Climatic changes were the aftermath of the eruption, and the atmospheric plume was to eventually affect the bristlecone pine of California; the bog oaks of Ireland, England, and Germany, and the grain crops of China.
Historical eruptions at Krakatau, Tambora, Vesuvius, and, more currently, eruptions at Nevado del Ruiz, Pinatubo, and Mount Saint Helens, have done massive environmental damage but none can compare with the sociological, religious, economic, agricultural, and political impacts from Thera (Santorini).
Major natural catastrophes that have occurred over historical time illustrate the force of nature and the impact on civilizations. Some examples of these are rains that flooded the Euphrates Valley during the time of Noah, and floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes in recent years, such as earthquakes in California and Hurricane Hugo on the east coast of the United States.
That mass destruction was passed down through oral folklore, perhaps leading to those Atlantis rumors and even causing the plagues described in the Bible’s Old Testament, Exodus.
Vesuvius (79 AD)
Located east of Naples, Italy, this volcano is best known for wiping out the entire city of Pompeii (and several other Roman cities as well). The eruption sent a massive cloud of stone and ash 20 miles into the sky, releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The intense heat also basically boiled the water in the nearby gulf (called hydrothermal pyroclastic flows), which was directly responsible for the deaths of more than 16,000 people. Archeologists have only found 1,500 bodies near Pompeii and Herculaneum, so the total number of fatalities has never been calculated.
The eruption that claimed Pompeii was detailed in letters by Pliny the Younger, a Roman poet, who was on the other side of the gulf at the time, giving him a front-row seat to the death and destruction. As he wrote, “Broad sheets of flame were lighting up many parts of Vesuvius; their light and brightness were the more vivid for the darkness of the night…it was daylight now elsewhere in the world, but there the darkness was darker and thicker than any night.”
The crazy thing about Vesuvius is that it’s actually erupted several times since — and people still live nearby. Indeed, it’s the only volcano in Europe to have erupted within the last century (the last eruption was in 1944) and to this day nearly 3 million people live in its vicinity: A disaster waiting to happen.
Tambora (1815)
The explosion of Mount Tambora in present-day Indonesia was so powerful that it altered the world’s climate, causing the following year to be referred to as the “Year Without a Summer.” Global cooling indeed not only temporarily eliminated the season but had profoundly detrimental impacts on harvests.
The Northern Hemisphere — New England and Western Europe, primarily — was the most deeply impacted by the cold temperatures. Snow was recorded on June 6th, 1816 in Maine, for example. The overnight frosts throughout New England were so consistent and profound that nothing could grow, and the cost of grains and corn rose exponentially given the failure of so many harvests.
In Northern Europe, many families were forced out of Wales and scavenged for food, essentially becoming refugees in southern regions. In America, the failure of harvests in the east coast forced families to head west, and thus, expedited settlement in the country’s heartland.
Krakatoa (1883)
The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, also in Indonesia, killed more than 36,000 people, making it one of the deadliest explosions in history.
As was the case with other massive eruptions, Krakatoa’s precursors included billowing smoke and small, seemingly insignificant earthquakes that not only went unheeded, but that were actually folded into festival celebrations of the time — Krakatoa’s “natural fireworks” were deemed a mere lucky surprise.
Shortly thereafter the blast sent a cloud of debris 15 miles into the air — and the eruption itself was heard some 2,800 miles away in Australia. The magma chamber ruptured and allowed sea water to come into contact with the burning hot lava. This created flashes of superheated steam that moved at over 60 miles per hour, quickly claiming the eruption’s first victims.
The cloud of ash and debris cast a darkness that didn’t recede for three days. Furthermore, not unlike when Tambora erupted, the rest of the Earth experienced climatic changes, with global weather patterns not returning to normal for five years, as a direct result of Krakatoa’s eruption.
Mount Pinatubo (1991)
Just 32 years ago the world was shaken by the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The fallout lingers to this day.
At first, Pinatubo just leaked for a while, but when the molten magma finally reached the surface, it ejected more than 1 cubic mile of debris 22 miles into the air. Sand, ash, and pumice pummeled the countryside and satellites were actually able to track the path of the ash cloud as it traveled around the world.
On a global scale, the eruption caused harmful depletion of the ozone layer at rates never seen before.
Avalanches of fiery ash cascaded into the valleys surrounding Pinatubo and eventually destroyed their underlying structural integrity, so much so that the summit actually collapsed and created a 1.6-mile-wide crater.
The deposits surrounding Pinatubo continue to retain much of their heat today, with temperatures still as high as 900 degrees Fahrenheit. As you can imagine, when the deposits come in contact with water, it causes explosions and clouds of hot ash. Because Pinatubo is also in monsoon territory, the gusts can carry the burning ash and debris even further than they would travel by way of normal wind — basically making fire typhoons.
Pinatubo killed around 350 people. Today, Mount Pinatubo is still an active volcano, and its eruption serves as a reminder of the importance of disaster preparedness and the need for continued monitoring of volcanic activity in at-risk areas.
Were these phenomena caused by any acts of man, by omission or commission? The resounding answer is NO! We class them as acts of nature or nature’s fury. Science merely tries to explain the mechanisms that operate them but not the reason why: That reason is known only to God Almighty.
Barka Juma’at and happy weekend
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