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Volcanic Risk and Crisis Management on Grande Comore Island

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Active Volcanoes of the Southwest Indian Ocean

Part of the book series: Active Volcanoes of the World ((AVOLCAN))

Abstract

While the volcanology of Grande Comore has been widely described, issues of crisis management raised by a vulnerability census have only been treated superficially, and disaster-related risk-reduction work is almost non-existent. Four recent eruptions, in April 2005, November 2005, May 2006 and January 2007, led to a renewed scientific interest in the volcano’s eruptive history and mechanisms of eruption, as well as in volcanic risk assessment and crisis management in the Comoros Islands.The crisis management system built up over the last few decades has been much improved over the last few years. However, this system is still weak due to structural vulnerabilities in the country. In this chapter we describe the risk and crisis management protocols, explain how they have been implemented over the years, and suggest ways to improve the handling of the next volcanic crisis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Nicolas Villeneuve for his review, kindly suggestions and comments. We are grateful to Fran Van Wyk de Vries for proofreading this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Géographie Physique de Meudon (LGP), UMR 8591, 1 place Aristide Briand, 92195, Meudon, France

    Julie Morin

  2. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Université Blaise Pascal—CNRS—IRD, Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont-Ferrand, 5 rue Kessler, 63038, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Patrick Bachèlery

  3. Observatoire Volcanologique du Karthala, CNDRS, Moroni, Grande Comore

    Hamidi Soulé & Hamidou Nassor

Authors
  1. Julie Morin
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  2. Patrick Bachèlery
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  3. Hamidi Soulé
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  4. Hamidou Nassor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Morin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Univ. Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Patrick Bachelery

  2. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Univ. Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Jean-François Lenat

  3. Piton de la Fournaise Volc. Observatory, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, La Plaine des Cafres, France

    Andrea Di Muro

  4. Laboratoire GeoSciences, University La Réunion, Saint-Denis, France

    Laurent Michon

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Morin, J., Bachèlery, P., Soulé, H., Nassor, H. (2016). Volcanic Risk and Crisis Management on Grande Comore Island. In: Bachelery, P., Lenat, JF., Di Muro, A., Michon, L. (eds) Active Volcanoes of the Southwest Indian Ocean. Active Volcanoes of the World. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31395-0_25

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