For this week’s discussion board topic, I would like for you to discuss the impacts associated with living near an active volcano and/or earthquake prone area.  Pick a volcano or a seismically active area on the planet that interests you and examine the past damages associated with this location.  What has been done to try to ‘solve’ the issues within these naturally hazardous areas. Why do people continue to live near these areas even though they are known to be dangerous?  Maybe look at an example of an area that had been inactive for a longtime, but suddenly became active again.  Discuss a bit about the geologic history of your location of interest and then discuss with TWO other students about their locations.  Try to pick different areas, as this is a big planet!  Feel free to include pictures of the location – but please be considerate of the images.
Example:  Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii.  Mauna Loa is the largest shield volcano on the planet, produced from a hotspot within the Pacific Ocean that dates back to .4 Ma.  There was a Kilauea Volcano park on the big island in Hawaii where visitor can hike.  At one day, the area became ‘active’ and a lava lake formed and no one can hike into this area anymore.  This lava lake fluctuates a lot, rising and lowering, and changing the landscape.  Most of the time, eruptions in Hawaii cause no major problems for the residents of the big island, but, every now and then, an area is threatened.  The most recent area was near Pahoa last year:  http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/hawaii-volcano/index.html