Geology Project 3 – Mount Pinatubo Eruption

Project 3 – Mount Pinatubo Eruption

In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo, located in the island of Luzon in the Philippines, erupted which resulted in effects felt worldwide. This volcanic eruption was the second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century. Clark Air Base, at the time was the largest overseas U.S. military base, and located less than 10 miles from the volcano, along with another U.S. military base, U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay located less than 25 miles away.

Fortunately, the Pinatubo eruption was predicted by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology along with the U.S. Geological Survey, and this allowed evacuation of most U.S. military personnel and their families from the Air Force Base prior to its big eruption. Additionally large numbers of the local population were also warned far enough ahead of time to evacuate.

Further complicating the event was the arrival of Typhoon Yunya near Mount Pinatubo during its eruption.

For this project, create a presentation in a format of your choice (Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi, Microsoft Word, Adobe pdf, YouTube, etc.) based on the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and the prediction of its eruption by volcano seismologists. In your presentation, include the following items:

– Mount Pinatubo geological & volcanic history,
– prediction processes & uncertainties prior to eruption,
– severity of the eruption,
– volcanic aftermaths,
– worldwide effects of the eruption.

Be sure to have appropriate figures, maps, graphs, tables, etc. in your presentation. Include a listing of the references used. Since this is a presentation and not a formal writing assignment, your citing & listing of references does not have to be in APA format. There is no required minimum or maximum length for this project, but do include a cover page (slide) with your name & title, plus a references list page (slide) at the end.

Use at least 5 different references in the creation of this project.

This project will be scored according to the following:

– organization & clarity (25%)
– accuracy (25%)
– completeness (25%)
– creativity (25%)

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Below is a link by PBS Learning Media, “Mount Pinatubo: Predicting a Volcanic Eruption” which may have some helpful information to start:

https://whyy.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.pinatubo/mount-pinatubo-predicting-a-volcanic-eruption/#.XgWRu1dKjIU

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Submit this ‘Project’ into the ‘Assignment’ folder as a single document in one of the appropriate formats. Be sure to include your name on the 1st page of your assignment.

Visible satellite image of Typhoon Yunya passing over Mount Pinatubo during its eruption in June 1991.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Satellite data
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
Land and ocean data
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_monthlies.php