Volcanoes and Cultures

Frank A. Trusdell, USGS HVO

Cape Verde 1995

• Volcanic Crisis

• Invited as an Advisor

• Evacuations

Formation of Cape Verde

• Local legend has it that when God had finished with creation he brushed his hands and the crumbs that fell into the sea formed the Cape Verde islands.

Cape Verde Islands

Located ~500 km off the west coast of Africa

Fogo Volcano

Historical eruptions View from NE

Fogo 1995

Winery: Economic Cornerstone

Fogo: Societal Impacts

Ecuador 1999

• Volcanic Crisis

• Invited as an Advisor

• Evacuations

Significance of the Volcanoes

• Ecuadorian Indians worshiped the some of the

volcanoes as Gods.

Tungurahua: 1999

Tungurahua: Banos sits at the foot of the volcano

Tungurahua: crater

Tungurahua:

Evacuation Ordered

Guagua Pichincha: crater

Guagua Pichincha: Seismicity

Guagua Pichincha: EQ daily counts

Refugee Camp: Guagua Pichincha

Guagua Pichincha: crater

November 1999

USGS Involvement in CNMI: invited

Seismic

Deformation MappingHazards Assessment

Age dating Hydrothermal

Started in 1990 with proactive monitoring

Program

Creationist Legend (Chamorro)

• Fu‘uña made:– With His Body, She Made The Earth

– With His Breast, She Made The Sky

– With The Right Eye, She Made The Sun

– With The Left Eye, She Made The Stars And The Moon

– And With His Eyebrows, She Made The Rainbows

Puntan and his sister, Fu‘uña, were born of space and had neither a father nor a mother. They existed before the sky and the earth. When it was Puntan's time to die, he instructed his sister to make a place for humans

Volcano God: Chaifi

• In a Mt. Sasalaguan there lived a god named Chaifi. He governed the winds, the waves, and fire.

• He created souls in his blacksmith shop to be his slaves.

• One day he was busy pounding out another soul into shape. Since he was in a hurry, he put too much wood in his oven. All of a sudden the whole place exploded into a huge eruption. Ash and stones were thrown into the air, and rivers of liquid fire began to pour down the sides of Mt. Sasalaguan.

Chaifi Legend: Cont’d

•Chaifi began a search for any souls who might have escaped in the explosion. •One of the souls fell to the earth at Fouha Bay on Guam and turned to stone. The rock was near the ocean, and the waves caressed the rock's feet. •Over time, the sun shone on the rock, and the rain and wind weathered it and it softened as the rain fell, turning into a man. •The man didn't like being alone. So he made some companions for himself from red earth and water.•He used the heat of the sun to give the man a soul. He made both men and women, calling them children of the earth.

Fouha Rock

Mt. Pagan 1981

• >40,000 ft ash column

• Volcanian phase

• Residents evacuated

• USGS invited to assist

Eruption of Mt Pagan

Mt Pagan, 1994

Anatahan May 10, 2003

Photo P. Shore

Anatahan Volcano: June 16, 2003.

New Zealand

Creationist Legend

• Maui pulled up a gigantic fish called Hahau-whenua

• The land that was created from this fish is now known as Te Ika-a-Maui, or the fish of Maui,

• Of these mountains, the volcanoes Taupo and Tongariro make up the belly of the fish

• Ruapehu is a great mountain sent to quell the turbulence of the great 'fish' hauled from the sea by Maui

to form the North Island.

How Volcanic Activity Arrived in NZ

• According to legend, the high priest, Ngatoroirangi (Nga-toro-i-rangi) was caught in a blizzard while climbing Mount Ngauruhoe.

• He prayed to his sisters in Hawaiki to send him fire to save him from freezing. 

• The flames they sent south emerged first at White Island, then Rotorua and Taupo before finally bursting at Ngatoroirangi’s feet.

• Thus Ngatoroirangi is credited with bringing volcanic activity to Aotearoa New Zealand - not as a curse upon the land, but as a blessing. 

New Zealanders accept forces of change

• Instead of fearing the forces still shaping the land, from the beginning, it seems the people of New Zealand have embraced them.  Maori accepted them as the work of the god Ruamoko, in whose domain all geothermal activity belonged.

Mauna Loa VolcanoMauna Loa Volcano

Frank Trusdell – Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

1984

Photo By D. LittlePhoto By D. Little

When Will The Next Eruption Be?

Summit Crossing baseline: GPS

Deformation Source: GPS

Histogram of Earthquake Counts at Mauna Loa Summit

Hypocenters before and during1975 Eruption

Hypocenters before and during1983 Eruption

Current Hypocenters

Mauna Loa Seismicity

Number of LPs beneath Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa Seismicity: Is it volcano related seismicity?

1984

Photo By D. LittlePhoto By D. Little