As you can imagine, Many of the
farmers lost their homes, crops, and livelihoods to the volcano, but the
government helped relocate them, and some even moved to California to
find work.
As it is with anything in nature,
there is no good, nor evil, and the Paricutin eruption ultimately did
leave us with something good; a rich soil in which crops could once
again grow on our land. Volcanic soil contains a wide variety of
common elements from rocks, which are readily chemically separated into
elemental components which make it easier for plants to absorb and grow
faster. This rich soil has turned the region into an agricultural
paradise; too bad so many of those originally affected by the natural
disaster were not there to reap its best reward.
Another beneficial effect of
volcanic activity is the production of H2o, or simply put, water.
Our atmosphere is the result of volcanic activity which occurred
billions of years ago, as gases and water vapor gave birth to our skies
and oceans. At the time, the air was very different from what it
is now, containing more noxious gases than oxygen, but as the earth
cooled and there were fewer volcanoes, the atmosphere slowly evolved
into its present composition, which is
78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide, and of course,
a little water vapor, which forms the clouds.
