Download Natural Disaster Project Top Ten Volcanic Eruptions Rank Event

Natural Disaster Project
Top Ten Volcanic Eruptions
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Event
Mount
Tambora
Krakatoa
Location
Indonesia
Date
Death Toll
April 10,
92,000
1815
Indonesia
May 26–27,
36,000
1883
Mount
Pompeii and
August 24,
33,000
Vesuvius
Herculaneum,
79 AD
Italy
Mount Pelee
Martinique
May 7 or
29,000
May 8, 1902
Nevado Del
Columbia
November
23,000
Ruiz
13, 1985
Mount Unzen
Japan
1792
15,000
Mount Kelut
Indonesia
1586
10,000
Laki
Iceland
June 8, 1783
9,350
Santa Maria
Guatemala
1902
6,000
Mount Kelut
Indonesia
May 19,
5,115
1919
1. Mount Tambora was an active stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, on
the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. After a large magma chamber inside the mountain
filled over the course of several decades, volcanic activity reached a historic climax in the
super-colossal eruption of April 1815. The 1815 eruption is rated 7 on the Volcanic
Explosivity Index. Most deaths from the eruption were from starvation and disease, as the
eruptive fallout ruined agricultural productivity in the local region. The death toll was at
least 71,000 people, of whom 11,000–12,000 were killed directly by the eruption; the
often-cited figure of 92,000 people killed is believed to be overestimated. The eruption
created global climate anomalies.
2. Krakatoa was a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and
Sumatra in Indonesia. The island exploded in 1883, killing approximately 40,000 people,
although some estimates put the death toll much higher. The explosion is still considered
to be the loudest sound ever heard in modern history, with reports of it being heard nearly
3,000 miles from its point of origin. The shock wave from the explosion was recorded on
barographs around the globe.
3. Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano on the Bay of Naples, Italy, about 9 kilometers
(5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the
European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not
currently erupting. Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the
burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Vesuvius has
erupted many times since and is today regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes
in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency
towards explosive eruptions. It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the
world.
4. Mount Pelée is an active volcano at the northern end of the island. It is among the
deadliest stratovolcanoes on Earth. Its volcanic cone is composed of layers of volcanic
ash and hardened lava. The volcano is famous for its eruption in 1902 and the destruction
that resulted, dubbed the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The eruption killed
about 30,000 people. Most deaths were caused by pyroclastic flows and occurred in the
city of Saint-Pierre, which was, at that time, the largest city on the island.Pyroclastic
flows completely destroyed St. Pierre, a town of 30,000 people, within minutes of the
eruption. The eruption left only three survivors in the direct path of the volcano. The
event marked the only major volcanic disaster in the history of France and its overseas
territories.
5. Nevado del Ruiz is the northernmost volcano of the Andean Volcanic Belt It is a
stratovolcano, composed of many layers of lava alternating with hardened volcanic ash
and other pyroclastic rocks. Nevado Del Ruiz has been active for about two million years.
Nevado Del Ruiz usually generates Plinian eruptions, which produce swift-moving
currents of hot gas and rock called pyroclastic flows. These eruptions often cause massive
lahars (mud and debris flows), which pose a threat to human life and the environment. On
November 13, 1985, a small eruption produced an enormous lahar that buried and
desolated the town and caused an estimated 23,000 deaths. This event later became
known as the Armero tragedy—the deadliest lahar in recorded history.
6. Mount Unzenis an active volcanic group of several overlapping stratovolcanoes, near the
city of Shimabaraon the island of Kyūshū, Japan’s southernmost main island.In 1792, the
collapse of one of its several lava domes triggered a tsunami that killed about 15,000
people in Japan’s worst-ever volcanic-related disaster. The volcano was most recently
active from 1990 to 1995, and a large eruption in 1991 generated a pyroclastic flow that
killed 43 people, including three volcanologists.
7. Mount Kelut is a volcano located in East Java in Indonesia. Like many Indonesian
volcanoes and others on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Kelut is known for large
explosive eruptions throughout its history. More than 30 eruptions have occurred
since 1000 AD. In the 1586 eruption, over 10,000 people were killed and injured
from the strength and debris of the volcano.
8. Laki is a volcanic fissure situated in the south of Iceland. Lakagígar is the correct name
as the Laki Mountain itself did not erupt, but fissures opened up on each side of it.
Lakagígar is part of a volcanic system, centering on the Grímsvötn volcano and including
the Þórdarhyrna volcano. It lies between two major glaciers. The system erupted over an
8 month period during 1783-1784 from the Laki fissure and the adjoining Grímsvötn
volcano, pouring out an estimated 14 km3 (3.4 cu mi) of basalt lava and clouds of
poisonous hydrofluoric acid/sulfur-dioxide compounds that killed over 50% of Iceland's
livestock population, leading to famine which killed approximately 25% of the
population.
9. Santa María Volcano is a large active volcano in the Western Highlands of Guatemala,
close to the city of Quetzaltenango. Its eruption in 1902 was one of the four largest
eruptions of the 20th century, after the 1912 Novarupta and 1991 Pinatubo eruptions. It is
also one of the five biggest eruptions of the past 200 (and probably 300) years. The
eruption totaled about 6,000 deaths in Guatemala.
10. Mount Kelut-On May 19, 1919, an eruption at Kelut killed an estimated 5,000 people,
mostly through hot mudflows. More recent eruptions in 1951, 1966, and 1990 have
altogether killed another 250 people. Following the 1966 eruption, the Ampera Tunnels
were built (top and bottom) on the southwestern side of the crater to reduce (not drain out
to empty) the water of crater lake and thus reduce the lahar hazard.