Mount Etna Sicily: Vulnerability and Resilience during the Pre-Industrial Era

Mount Etna is one of the world’s few continually active continental volcanoes and its frequent flank eruptions have been recorded since classical times. These studies have generated a vast literature which, not only enables the impact of eruptions, recovery from them and aspects of human vulnerability and resilience to be brought into focus, but also provides information that allows an assessment to be made of the interplay between environmental, economic and social forces which has shaped this area into Sicily’s most distinctive region. In this paper we argue that a unique agriculturally-based society, largely developing indigenously and without significant outside assistance, evolved during a long pre-industrial era, which stretched from late antiquity until the 1950s. In terms of loss-bearing, responses were also typically pre-industrial, with the 1923 eruption denoting the close of this period. Responses were managed with relatively little outside help or intervention. The 1928 eruption marked a transition, after which responses involved progressively greater State intervention. In the pre-industrial era eruptions were managed at three levels: through limited State involvement; by mutual support within village communities, in which religious belief and explanations for losses provided both a social cement - the church often providing leadership and pastoral support - and a context in which losses could be explained; and by family and extended family groups. Finally we argue that these indigenous mechanisms of coping hold important lessons about how disasters on Etna may be managed today

Chapter 16 Volcanic hazard vulnerability on São Miguel Island, Azores

AbstractIn recent years much progress has been made in researching a wide variety of extreme events on São Miguel. In addition there are a number of volcano-related risks that impact upon the people of São Miguel. Some of these may occur both before and during volcanic emergencies (e.g. earthquakes), whilst others render São Miguel dangerous even when its volcanoes are not erupting (e.g. flooding, landslides, tsunamis and health impacts, especially the effects of CO2seepage into dwellings). In this chapter we first define what vulnerability means to the people of São Miguel, and relate this to the cultural and economic characteristics of the island. The following aspects of vulnerability are discussed: (a) physical (i.e. housing, settlement and the characteristics of evacuation routes and plans); (b) demographic and economic; and (c) social and cultural and perceptual (i.e. whether people have an accurate cognition of risk). Particular areas of concern relate to housing: the identification of isolated dwellings that would be difficult to evacuate; the vulnerability/resilience of evacuation routes following recent infrastructure improvements; characteristics of the island's transient population; management of livestock under emergency conditions; local leadership roles; and educational outreach.</jats:p

Volcanic hazard vulnerability on Sao Miguel Island, Azores

"In recent years much progress has been made in researching a wide variety of extreme events on S. Miguel. In addition there are a number of volcano-related risks which impact upon the people of S. Miguel. Some of these may occur both before and during volcanic emergencies (e.g. earthquakes), whilst others render S. Miguel dangerous even when its volcanoes are not erupting (e.g. flooding, landslides, tsunamis and health impacts, especially the effects of CO2 seepage into dwellings). In this chapter we first define what vulnerability means to the people of São Miguel, and relate this to the cultural and economic characteristics of the island. The following aspects of vulnerability are discussed: a. physical (i.e. housing, settlement and the characteristics of evacuation routes and plans); b. demographic and economic; c. social and cultural and perceptual (i.e. do people have an accurate cognition of risk). Particular areas of concern relate to housing; the identification of isolated dwellings which would be difficult to evacuate; the vulnerability/resilience of evacuation routes following recent infrastructure improvements; characteristics of the island's transient population; management of livestock under emergency conditions; local leadership roles and educational outreach.

Non-eruptive geological hazards of dormant volcanoes: Sao Miguel, Azores Perigos geologicos nao erurptivos en vulcoes adormecidos: Sao Miguel, Acores

São Miguel Island presents a diversity of geological hazards that are related to non-eruptive processes. Frequent seismic swarms and destructive earthquakes, of volcanic and tectonically related origin, have been recorded on the Island since it was settled in the 15th century. Large areas of volcanic edifices of Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas are unstable. Steep slopes, unconsolidated and poorly consolidated materials, such as volcaniclastic deposits occasionally weathered by hydrothermal activity, play an important role in landslide activity. Slope instability is mainly triggered by intense rainfall, but also by seismic activity, sea and fluvial erosion and/or anthropogenic activity. Volcano degassing represents a major risk during anomalous gas release and a continuous menace for the public health

Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 20

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Small but crucial : the novel small heat shock protein Hsp21 mediates stress adaptation and virulence in Candida albicans

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The older volcanic complexes of Sao Miguel, Azores: Nordeste and Povoacao

The oldest part of S. Miguel is to the east of Furnas. Previous research argued that these volcanics belong to a construct called the Nordeste Volcano, a heavily eroded shield which not only extends to the east coast of the island but also underlies Furnas Volcano in the west. On the basis of geomorphological mapping, we argue that Nordeste comprises two volcanic systems: an older Nordeste construct (the Nordeste Volcanic System); and the younger Povoação Volcano which straddles the Nordeste shield on its western margin. The Nordeste Volcanic System consists of the Lower Basalts which constitute the overwhelming majority of its subaerial products which are exposed in coastal cliff sections. Above the Lower Basalts is a surficial drape of Ankaramites and the Upper Basalts. There is no evidence of large explosive trachytic eruptions from Nordeste Volcanic System. Povoação Volcano comprises an early shield construct, after which the volcano experienced caldera collapse. Post-caldera deposits are poorly exposed, but include basaltic, mugearitic and trachytic lavas intercalated by cut and fill sequences. Radiometric dating has yet to resolve fully the absolute ages of the Nordeste and Povoação volcanic systems, but morphology indicates that the former is much older than the latter