New
New
Year 8

Living close to volcanoes

I can explain why people live near volcanoes and how to prepare for and respond to eruptions.

New
New
Year 8

Living close to volcanoes

I can explain why people live near volcanoes and how to prepare for and respond to eruptions.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. One in twenty people lives close to an active volcano due to their fertile soils, tourist income and geothermal energy.
  2. There are risks including: pyroclastic flows, ash and lahars.
  3. Preparation such as public education as well as the monitoring of volcanoes can reduce risks to people living close by.
  4. Short-term responses include local and international emergency services providing aid to people.
  5. Long-term responses include infrastructure repair/rebuild in the months and years after the eruption.

Keywords

  • Evacuate - to move people away from an area with a threat or hazard to a place of safety

  • Infrastructure - all the basic systems in a country, such as transport and power supply

  • Short-term response - actions that occur in the hours, days or weeks immediately after a disaster to help the basic needs of people

  • Long-term response - actions that occur in the months or years after a disaster to help rebuild or recover from the effects

Common misconception

People do not live on volcanoes because it is too dangerous.

One in twenty people live close to an active volcano, as there are many attractive qualities to living there, e.g. fertile soils, tourist income and geothermal energy.


To help you plan your year 8 geography lesson on: Living close to volcanoes, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Researcing a specific volcano, and creating an advert to encourage more visitors, could provide an inspiring homework task.
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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which layer of Earth contains molten rock (magma)?
Crust
Correct answer: Mantle
Inner core
Lithosphere
Q2.
What causes tectonic plates to move?
Ocean tides
Wind and rain
Correct answer: Slab pull
Earth's rotation
Q3.
What is a plate boundary?
Where the sea meets the land
Correct answer: The edge of a tectonic plate
A type of rock
The crust under a volcano
Q4.
What happens at a destructive plate boundary?
Plates slide past each other
Plates move apart
Correct answer: One plate is forced under another
Plates do not move
Q5.
What type of volcano has steep sides and erupts explosively?
Shield volcano
Correct answer: Composite volcano
Lava dome
Fissure volcano
Q6.
Which of the following is a volcanic hazard?
Earthquake
Correct answer: Pyroclastic flow
Flood
Drought

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
How many people live close to an active volcano?
One in a hundred
One in fifty
Correct answer: One in twenty
One in five
Q2.
What are the risks of living near volcanoes?
Correct answer: Pyroclastic flows
Correct answer: Lahars
River floods
Correct answer: Ash
Q3.
Short-term responses after a volcanic eruption include:
Measuring the amount of gas coming from the volcano
Correct answer: Emergency services provide aid such as water, food, shelter and medical help
Designing buildings to be resilient to hazards
Education programmes and drills
Q4.
What longer-term things help people manage the risk of living near hazards?
Correct answer: Education programmes and community drills
Correct answer: Monitoring to predict eruptions can allow time for people to evacuate the area
International aid bringing food, water and medical supplies
Correct answer: Designing and building infrastructure to survive the effect of an eruption