Paricutin Story Pt. 6

The Paricutin Story

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.