Living with Volcanic Activity

Benefits brought by volcanoesGeothermal Powerheat from a magma chamber can be used as an energy source electricity generated directly from steam in volcanically active area electricit generated by water pumped down and heated from hot rocks space heating for greenhouses, public buildings and homes hot water supply for swimming pools, cooking and domestic use Fertile soils - lava and some volcanic ash weather create a deep fertile soilsomewhere to live - volcanic tuff formed from ash is a useful building material, easy to cut and light. without volcanic gases the earth would have no atmosphere: volcanoes supply large volumes of gases to the atmosphere and initally created the earth's atmosphere of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen all the water in the oceans originated as volcanic has in the form of water vaopout minerals: sulfur is mined from active volcanoes black smokers are hydrothermal vents on MORs that produce a variety of sulfide metals deposits, rich in nickel, copper, silver, zinc, mercury, magnanese and lead bacteria found in Yelowstone are now used in DNA and AIDS testing.

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