Geology 9 - France Blog- Claudia Alvarado

 France Volcanoes           France is not all huge cities and small colorful towns filled with French people. Beautiful lands made up of mountains and lakes/rivers is what makes up 15% of France. The Massif Central In France is home too many inactive volcanoes dating back to the Tertiary and Quaternary Epochs. The most popular extinct volcanoes are the Chain des Puys which is 80 monogenetic volcanoes dated back to the ice age which are now formed into domes. Monogenetic volcanoes refer to a one and only eruption. These volcanoes erupted back in 4040 BCE which created the 15 explosion craters, 8 lava domes and 48 cinder cones.      The most active volcanoes of France consist of Mountage Pelee which is located in Martinique, an island of France. This active stratovolcano which formed from the major layers of hardened lava is one of the most deadliest type. This volcano had erupted...

France is not known for major earthquakes like it is in the U.S. While there are no active fault-lines, the last major recorded earthquake was in 2019 having a magnitude of 4.8. The picture shows the zones where earthquakes are more bound to occur and hit the hardest. The earthquake of 2019 did make the people of France evacuate but there have been 10 deaths due to earthquakes since 1950. The last recorded major earthquake was in 2006 with a magnitude of 4.7! Must be nice to not have to worry about earthquakes.  The people of France are alerted through sirens in case of any natural disaster. This could be anything from an earthquake to a Tsunami and can also be alerted from their phones to send a message to make sure everyone is okay.  Sources: http://ds.iris.edu/seismon/index.phtml https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/French_earthquake_fault_mapped

    France is located on the Eurasian Tectonic plate which is made up on micro plates making France more born to minor earthquakes. France is not located next to a boundary with no volcano eruption hotspots. Usually France gets minor earthquakes which are rare to big ones such as ones from the San Andreas Fault.            France is also on a side of the Mediterranean Sea which covers all 3 of complex tectonics of lithospheric plates which are Eurasia, Nubia, and Arabia.  Sources: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/17824/active-tectonics-of-the-mediterranean-region-and-surrounding-areas https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/weird-earthquake-crack-france-geologists-buzzing https://earthhow.com/7-major-tectonic-plates/