SCI 350 Milestone 2
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School
Southern New Hampshire University *
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Course
SCI 310
Subject
Geology
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
3
Uploaded by tylerzigmond
Tyler Zigmond
Sci-350: Leadership and Ethics in Geoscience
Southern New Hampshire University
November 19, 2023
Milestone 1
The case study that I decided to use is the “Museum of Vesuvius Observatory” for this
assignment. When looking at the location for the case study, the major risk present would be
about a volcanic eruption. Mt. Vesuvius is the only active volcano in all of Europe. Any time that
you are doing research near a volcano, there are risks. Any people, livestock, buildings, or
objects are at risk of destruction due to an eruption. Lava flow, volcanic ash, debris, and even
seismic activity can be dangers in this location.
When looking at this area, it is ideal for research, however, it is not the best location for
housing or industrial complexes. While there are many towns around the world built near
volcanoes, I dont believe in tempting fate. The last eruption of vesuvius was in 1944, with the
last major eruption occurring almost 400 years ago. If you wanted to have a location to develop
near the volcano, I would suggest somewhere between 20-25 miles away. Even looking back to
the eruption in 79 AD, the volcanic ash spread as far as 19 miles away.
Human activity isnt that much of an impact tot he area. The main impacts I can think of
are pollution caused by drilling or excavation. There are a lot of chemicals is the solutions that
humans use. If the activities that humas do in the area caused an eruption somehow, it would
cause for the present landscape to be overtaken, and even more pollution to occur. The ash from
an eruption can be very dangerous. And like anywhere humans decide to dig, soil integrity will
lessen.
For this area, the main way of interacting would be a “watch and report” style of
coupling. The area is researched, surveyed, and monitored. If anything abstract or worrisome
comes up, the researchers can warn those in the surrounding areas. Any time that humans are
near a potential hazard, there should be a form of warning system, especially near a volcano. The
great thing is that when the area is dormant, it allows the researchers to collect amazing samples,
along with get data you might not be able to get at a safer inactive volcano, or a currently active
one.
With having a museum near the volcano, it shows a generally safe trade off between
research, interest, and the danger to the visitors. Back in 1872, the observatory was surrounded
by lava flow. None of the visitors were harmed, however they did have a stressful couple of days
being isolated from the world. Risk is a part of the seeking of knowledge nowadays. A lot of the
safer topics have already been fully explored. Volcanoes, ocean trenches, and earthquake
research all have inherent risks associated with them. As the project manager of the observatory,
I believe it is your responsibility to make anyone coming aware of the risks, but I would not stop
any of the normal activities and research being put in place just because of the risk of an
eruption.
As a proposal, I believe that we should require anyone to be made aware of the risks, to
set up buildings or facilities a proper distance away as discussed earlier in the paper, and to have
a way of quickly providing evacuation in case of an eruption. I do not believe that anything
should stop visitors or researchers from coming to the area, as long as they are made aware of the
risks.
PNV. (2018, September 24).
The Vesuvius Observatory of hercolaneum: Vesuvius National
Park
. Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio. https://www.parconazionaledelvesuvio.it/en/the-
volcano/the-vesuvius-observatory/
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