QUESTION:
Hello.  I am a high school senior in Freeport, Maine, USA.  For a science
project I am researching the effects of volcanoes on their environments, and
the effects of environments on volcanoes. By environment, I mean temperature,
air quality, etc.. I am looking for information particulary about Antarctica,
but anything you know about other regions is good as well.  Any help that you
could give me, with your knowledge of volcanoes, would be much appreciated.
        Thank you very much.
        Kathy D.


ANSWER from Scott Borg, Program Director                                 
            Office of Polar Programs -- Antarctic Geology & Geophysics
Program        
            National Science Foundation
            Mon Mar 31 15:41:32 1997


Dear Kathy,

There is not much specific info about Antarctic volcanoes because they are
not generally available for intense and long term study.  There is a good
book about volcanoes by Peter Francis (penguin books published an edition
some years ago but the book has been updated more recently and I don't know
if penguin is still the publisher) called "Volcanoes", I believe.  There
have been many published accounts of the environmental effects of major
eruptions.  National Geographic Magazine I believe has a number of accounts
of Mt St Helens that cover the eruption and subsequent recovery of the
ecosystem.  Other accounts of Mt Pinatubo also should be easy to find in
your library.  The environmental effects of eruptions like these range from
utter devastation to regions close to the volcano to much prettier sunsets
due to dust in the upper atmosphere for folks far from eruptions.  Mt
Pinatubo is thought to be the reason for cooler average temperature for a
couple of years after the eruption.  Envionmental parameters like
temperature and air quality have little direct impact on volcanoes.  The
largest impact these parameters have is probably on the weathering rates of
the rock.  Environmental parameters like rainfall contribute to the
conditions present when volcanoes erupt.  To the extent that temperature
contributes to the volume and nature (snow versus rain) of precipitation,
then temperature does play a role.  If a volcano has lots of snow on it when
it goes off, then there can be lots of mudslides triggered by melting snow
that can be quite damaging.  If there is sufficient groundwater (from
precipitation) then this can contribute to possible phreatomagmatic
eruptions (eruptions involving water that flashes to steam violently when
the water encounters magma or very hot rock).  An eruption recently in
Iceland led to large floods that emanated from an ice sheet.  There were
spectacular images on the www during the eruption.  Check out the following
web site: http://escher.earth.ruu.nl/~jerfaas/bardar/index.html
I hope this helps.

Scott Borg