Volcanoes

This chapter describes the key elements of volcanic disaster planning for health sector workers. A simplified way to approach volcanoes and their hazards is to learn whether they are mainly explosive or effusive (a nonexplosive outpouring of fluid lava) in behavior. The main eruptive hazards can be divided into fall and flow processes. Pyroclastic flows and surges, lahars and debris flows, and lava flows can, for emergency planning purposes, be envisaged by thinking visually or intuitively, but their behavior belongs to the world of flow, or fluid dynamics, on which the understanding of the blood circulation, meteorology, and aeronautics is based. Although mitigation of human casualties by timely evacuation is the main goal in emergency management of volcanic threats, disaster planners must also be familiar with rescue and emergency treatment measures and prepare for unique conditions associated with volcanic eruptions.