Ten Most Dangerous Volcanoes on the Globe
By dorotix, April 27th 2010 in Travel News Comments (226)
The recent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, an Icelandic volcano whose name only a few dare to pronounce, made people realize once again how powerful the nature is and how destructive it might be. During six days of the volcano's activity the air travel plunged into chaos, airlines lost almost $2bn and tens of thousands of travellers got stuck at the airports. Still, it's nothing compared to the calamities eruptions may cause, wiping out cities and claiming thousands of lives.
Check out the world's ten most destructive volcanoes:
1. Sakura-jima. Japan.
Since 1955 Sakurajima the stratovolcano in Kyūshū, Japan, often called the Vesuvius of the east, has been erupting almost constantly. Due to its location in a densely populated area, the volcano is considered to be one of the world's most dangerous. The city of Kagoshima is inhabited by almost 700,000 residents and lies just a few kilometres from the mount. The city has even built special shelters where people can take refuge from falling debris. The volcano's last eruption took place in March 2009, sending debris up to 2 km away.
2. Etna. Italy.
Mount Etna is Europe's most active and tallest (3,300 m /10,900 ft) volcano and its potential for destruction is huge. Etna's constant state of activity is a serious threat to people living in the villages and towns of Sicily. Its most dangerous eruption occurred in 1669, when lava destroyed many villages around the volcano's base and "swallowed" part of Catania, an ancient town on the east cost of Sicily. In 1992 two streams of lava threatened Zafferana, a municipality inhabited by around 8,000 people.
3. Kilauea. Hawaii. The USA.
Kilauea, the world's most active volcano located on the Big Island of Hawaii, for many years has been considered fairly gentle, as relatively few people have been killed following its explosions. Recently, however, the scientists revealed Kilauea's deadly face. Apparently, the volcano has an extensive layer of ash and rock called tephra that can be blasted high enough to be a hazard to passenger airplanes. The golf ball-size rocks can be thrown 17 kilometres (11 miles) out. The last time tephra erupted was between 500 and 200 years ago.
4. Cotopaxi. Ecuador.
Cotopaxi, one of the tallest active volcanoes in the world, reaching a height of 5,897 m (19,347 ft), is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate. Since 1783 the mount has erupted more than 50 times, posing a serious threat to the nearby cities and villages. Quito, the capital of Ecuador with around 1 million inhabitants, is located 60 km south and Latacunga, a historical town that has already been destroyed four times by earthquakes is 25 km northeast.
5. Vesuvius. Italy.
The legendary Mount Vesuvius sitting on the beautiful coast of the Bay of Naples in Italy has already proven that its destructive capabilities are enormous. In AD 79 a huge explosion wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing up to 25,000 people. Vesuvius is ultra dangerous not only because there are 3 million people living nearby, but also due to the fact that its quiescence period has already been very long. Apparently, the longer the quiescence period, the stronger and more explosive the renewal of Vesuvius' activity will probably be. In the past the mount's eruptions were so violent that the whole of southern Europe was blanketed by ash.
6. Merapi. Indonesia.
Called the Mountain of Fire in Indonesian, Merapi is the most dangerous volcano in the country, erupting roughly once a decade. Since the 16th century it has been erupting regularly and causing serious threat to people inhabiting the surrounding areas. The violent mountain is located very close to the city of Yogyakarta, and some villages are situated as high as 1,700 m on the flanks of the volcano. In 2006, around 5,000 people were killed and 200,000 left homeless due to the earthquakes that followed Merapi's eruption.
7. Nyiragongo. Congo.
Nyiragongo and nearby Nyamuragira in Congo, Africa, are jointly responsible for 40% of the historical volcanic eruptions on the continent. Apparently, nowhere else on the globe does such a steep-sided stratovolcano contain a lake of such fluid lava like Nyiragongo. In 1977, the lava flowed down the flanks of the mount killing up to 100 people, though some reports point to about several thousand people. In 2002, the volcano erupted again, reaching the city of Goma, where at least 15% buildings were destroyed, leaving 120,000 people homeless and killing around 45 citizens.
8. Popocatepetl. Mexico.
Another natural-born killer is Popocatepetl, a glacier-covered volcano situated only 70 km from Mexico City. Rising to around 5,400 (17,800 ft) above sea level, the eruption of "the Smoking Mountain" could be a serious threat not only to the capital city (inhabited by fairly 9 million people) but also to other towns and villages located very close to it. Popocatepetl is one of the most violent volcanoes in the country, having had around 20 huge eruptions since the 16th century. In 2000, tens of thousands of people were evacuated just before the volcano exploded and caused enormous glacial melting.
9. Mount Teide. Spain
The world's third largest volcano (from its base), Mount Teide, is located on Tenerife, the Canary Islands. Although Teide is currently dormant, further eruptions are possible in the near future, including the risk of pyroclastic flows and surges similar to those that occurred at Merapi or Mount Vesuvius in Italy. Due to Teide's proximity to several large towns and resorts, the mount was designated one of the Decade Volcanoes by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry, with the implication that it's currently one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes.
10. Mount Rainier. The USA.
The peacefully-looking Mount Rainer is in fact an active volcano that has the potential to devastate virtually all areas surrounding its base. It is located around 87 km southeast of Seattle, a major city on the West Coast of the USA. Despite the fact that the most recent recorded eruption took place at the end of the 19th century, lahars (a type of mudflow or landslide) pose serious risk to many communities that lie atop older lahar deposits. Such mudflows can even reach parts of downtown Seattle and cause tsunami in Puget Sound and Lake Washington.
The biggest problem with volcanoes is that nobody can say with 100% certainty if and when they are going to blow. Beware then! Each of the smoking cones above could potentially be the next killer, or at least a bad trouble-maker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz When the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupted in 1985 it killed 23,000 people - the deadliest lahar in known history and the 2nd deadliest eruption of the 20th Century. Should probably be in the Top 10!
Yellowstone is a super-volcano capable of wiping out humanity if it ever burst. It's long overdue by thousands of years and it's capable of shooting out enough ash to cover the planet for years.
i say that the world will get destroyed by volcanos befor the sun goes out
Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any countries on earth. You missed out Krakatau volcano in Indonesia. Located in Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java Islands, the volcano is constantly erupting. Its most famous and devastating eruption was on 1883. Only God knows how big the catastrophe this volcano can cause.
i think nothing
i love ice cream and chocolate
Speaking as a Seattle resident, the hype over Mt. Rainier is mostly that: hype. Its history of eruptions are relatively small and far between. Most of the more dangerous volcanoes of the world are in South America and the islands of the Asian Pacific, not in North America.
I think half the people here have no idea what they are talking about if there is a really deadly eruption it is going to be in Asia, South America or the pacific. New zealand has a few big volcaneos that need to be moniterd after all the biggest eruption in 5000 years did occur there!!!
you missed mt st helens in washington, one time it erupted so violently that the perfect looking cone now looks like someone blew it off
the volcano you are talking about bryce is not a regular volcano, they are supervolcanoes, those are volcanoes that erupt lava but does not form a cone, and it could affect the whole world like what happened at lake toba 75,000 years ago
Bryant - Although you are correct that there is some hype surrounding Rainier, you fail to mention that scientists always figured Rainier was a more active volcano than St. Helens. They were proved wrong when St. Helens first erupted in 1980. Volcanoes are unpredictable. If Rainier were to suddenly erupt, it could be catastrophic for the northwest.
These arnt dangerous
you missed out krakatau, tambora and papandayan in indonesia
wow learn to research. These aren't all that dangerous. Etna is actually pretty safe. Having it on this list is a joke. Also I can see this is not close to professional when the American volcanoes say "The USA". just say USA
AWSOME
oh yeah go japan
i like the kilauea volcano! It's like a burning marshmalow
very like helpful.duh
this is coool
nyiragongo is the best one it is from congo.nyiragongo is cool
lol your funny
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
lol
ssh
Totally believable!
i went to mount rainer and it was cool!
lol
oh my report is on MAUNA LOA DAMMMNNN.......
awesome..my repport is on vesuvius italy
gods in controll,not the volcano
You guys are gay no lifes
U should try mount taal in philippines that volcano is very cool!
yellow stone is the biggest volcano of the world
mountain ranier is the big volcano of the world
mount reanieer is huge
Mount Wanna-Hock-a-Loogie
!WRONG! Vesuvius Italy should be the dangerous number one!
Looking at this different volcanoes makes me remember a trip I had once in the Philippines and I think that this volcano is just amazing and really shapes like a cone.
.....
More volcanoes pllzz need better ideas (pretty 2)
yea
OMG, do you see whats taking place in Syria? Despite a brutal government crackdown, the demonstrations continue
Most dangerous volcanoes i done seen
!hola!
Como estas 
My report is on Mt. Kilauea and i have been there and it is pretty amazing!
Well I would place yellowstone number 1, its overdue for an eruption that could wipe out two thirds of America and make the U.S lose supreme power in a day. Oh yeah and whatever dumbass said it could wipe out all of humanity do your research...
i hate them
lol
this conversation makes my butt hurt
anyone there
I doing researcher on one of these volcanos
yo
i love volcanoes and i sleep next to them all night long
that is cool
Cool Story Bro
Youu'd have to be half stupid to sleep by one all night long. Just sayin.
where is Kracotoa
nohing !!
did you see the hawii i thought that was so cool !
super cool
the volcan..........................
OMG so freaking amazayn!!!
i think vocanoes r pretty eben though they destroy stuff! ! 
xx
*even
Does anyone know how long the eruption of mt nyiragongo in congo lasted for in 2002
?
ya it lasted only a day but it wiped out 15% of Goma
super cool too
kool
good it helped me with my homework
The Jetpacker- thanks dude i was looking for the most dangerous volcano for a project of mine and that helped alot! THNKS MATE
))))))
Interesting list. Got a couple of comments.
1) The Auckland Volcanic Field in New Zealand erupts every 800-1000 years, and has erupted 49 times in the last 60,000 years. Auckland, a city of 1.4 million people is right on top of the AVF.
2) Fujiyama in Japan has densely populated urban areas around its lower flanks. It last erupted in 1707. The Tokyo metropolitan area could be affected by ashfall and possibly lahars.
3) El Misti Misti volcano is near Arequipa in Peru. It has a history of damaging lahar events and is only dormant. Arequipa is Peru's second city.
4) Near Quito, the capital of Ecuador, there are numerous volcanoes including Guagua Pichincha and least three or four others.
I am a bit miffed as to why Krakatoa, a rather bombastic volcano with a matching record, is not on the list. I guess it comes down to the perception of the individual who writes the list.
I could go on, but will stop here with the comment that often the most dangerous volcano is the one that is not well known, has had little research done on it and is often a boring looking vegetation clad hill - like pre-1982 El Chichon.
ok it was alright
WORNG!!! KRAKATOA SHOULD BE SECOND!!
I Agree the Krakatoa should be the 2nd worst volcano. I went on every site and the KRAKATOA was second EXEPT on THIS WENSITE
that's true what about TAMBORA? What about MT.ST.HELENS or the KRAKATOA?
I think Krakatoa!
Here are some facts....
When: Indonesian
Killed:36,406 people
Sound: could be hear 4,000 miles awya
Ash: 40 KM of ASH!
NOW THAT'S A DEADLY VOLCANO
KRAKATOA
Also followed by a Tsunami
Just because a volcano is located near a very populated area should not distinguish it as the world's most dangerous volcano. In fact none of the volcanoes on this list are even remotely close to some of the known Supervolcanoes that can make life on this planet very hard to progress if an eruption by one does occur. The Yellowstone Caldera is one of these Supervolcanoes. There are actually a couple more just like Yellowstone right at the center of California as well as a few big ones in Indonesia like the Lake Toba caldera. Everyone likes to mention Krakatoa as a relevant crazy dangerous volcano that killed a lot of people. Krakatoa actually is only popularized because when it erupted the telegraph was just invented allowing for instantaneous information to travel around the world about it killing so many people and everyone was able be involved with it on a global scale. But only 70 years earlier just a few miles away from Krakatoa, Mount Tambora, an even bigger volcano, erupted and killed almost 80,000 people, more than twice as much as Krakatoa and It also caused widespread famine all over the globe because crops failed for a couple of years. Whats interesting about both of those volcanoes is a yellowstone eruption would by comparison dwarf the eruptions of Krakatoa, Mount Tombora Mt St Helens Mt Vesuvius combined!!! We have more of a chance of being blasted to extinction by a volcano than anything else, even killer asteroids. Almost all of the recognized theorized mass extinction events that has stunted all life on the globe is attributed to some kind of volcanic cataclysm. This list, though very informative about some really cool looking volcanoes, is just plain wrong.
Toba, Indonesia. Almost wiped out humanity 70000 years ago.
I remember there is a documenter film titled "Mega disasters:krakatoa 's revenge". in ancient age, krakatoa 's eruption made all of our earth dark for 18 months, it dusts spread through atmostphere, even people in india saw a Green Moon. years after the eruption, this volcano was back from the deep sea and now its named "Anak krakatau" or "child of Krakatoa". this volcano is still growing bigger and bigger till now.
Simple answer as said before is that most truly dangerous volcanoes are unknown to the majority of people. To those that think Mt St Helens should be on the list I ask you why? It's eruptive volume was very small compared to most well known eruptions and those that died in 1980 did so because they underestimated the volcano and the warnings.
vokxonoes turn me in
hello friends,i live in mauritius.in my country there are no active volcanoes.so,i do not fear that much.lozzzzzzzzzzzzz! dear friends.
dear friends i think that rotorua is the 2nd most dangerous underground volcanoe
this is tyra and it is so cute...
where is yellowstone?!
Some interesting information in the article - the comments were also interesting. I'm far enough away from most of the volcanoes mentioned that I would not be immediately affected. The one exception is the Yellowstone Caldera. Although I might survive the initial blast (I'm in southern Illinois) the immediate impact on the prices of commodities (food, energy, etc...) would be catastrophic. The US economy would probably collapse and the ensuing panic from the astronomical rise in food & fuel prices would spell certain doom for many. The Yellowstone Caldera is certainly my greatest fear as far as volcanoes go.
am far away from those volcanoes lucky me!!
but i still pray for the best
what time did they erupt(year)?
Judging most dangerous volcanoes is difficult. Do you write a list based off which volcanoes if they WERE to erupt would have the highest death toll, or do you write your list based off which volcanoes have the highest probability of killing a decent amount of people within the next 10-30 years.
If we're going by most powerful volcanoes, you would likely put all the massive caldera systems (popularized by the media as supervolcanoes) as the likely culprits.
That being said, they're highly unlikely to erupt in the next 1000 years, so it's really nothing to worry about.
The volcanoes you really have to worry about are the volcanoes that are both powerful & also have a close proximity to human population.
Were a volcano like Tambora to erupt in modern times, it would be a catastrophe worse than the Tsunami that hit the same area around year 2000 (and killed around 160,000-200,000 people. There are many indonesian volcanoes capable of eruptions as powerful as tambora or Krakatau as well. It's also important to note that if a volcano had a super large (Vei 6+) eruption within the last 500 years, it's not likely that it will erupt again for a long time. It takes a while for a volcano to recharge, and even the most active complexes such as Krakatau will likely take at least another 200 years before they can do anything extravagant.
If a large volcanic complex such as Campi Flegrei (naples), Vesuvius, or Ischia were to blow, that would be a disaster.
It's also important to note that there are a lot of understudied volcanoes, or perhaps volcanoes that don't receive the sensationalist media attention that Yellowstone gets that are a major threat to people who live near them.
Bad list
Yellowstone is the most dangerous because it is an active super-volcano which means a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with ejecta greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers which is nearly a thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Super volcanic eruptions typically cover huge areas with lava and volcanic ash sufficient to threaten the extinction of species and can even be one of the causes to bring end to the world because once this volcano erupts, it causes all other volcanoes to erupt causing massive tectonic activity.
One of the largest supervolcanoes in the world lying beneath Yellowstone National Park and scientists say it is still active and even the activity is increasing! Though the Yellowstone system, which spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, is active and expected to eventually blow its top, scientists think it will erupt any time soon. Supervolcanoes can sleep for centuries or millenniams before producing incredibly massive eruptions that can drop ash across an entire continent.
Erupting every 6 lac years and it’s already 40 thousand years over, significant activity is mounting beneath the surface, scientists say it can erupt anytime. Back to 640,000 years ago, the area that we know as Yellowstone National Park was the epicenter of a cataclysmic volcanic eruption—an eruption one thousand times larger than Mt. St. Helens. The eruption blasted away mountains, unearthed a vast ocean of lava and spewed hundreds of miles of debris into the atmosphere, burying half of the United States with deadly ash. Largely unknown today, this destructive super volcano is still active, turning the picturesque landscape of Yellowstone into one of the harshest environments on the planet. Due to the volcanic and tectonic nature of the region, the Yellowstone Caldera experiences between 1000 and 2000 measurable earthquakes a year, though most are relatively minor. Brutally cold winters fade into majestic summers, but for the animals that call the park home—including Yellowstone’s great icons: the grey wolf, grizzly bear, buffalo and antelope—this unique and hostile land creates a daily, dramatic battle for survival. Yellowstone captures the essence of this bitter and mercurial environment as it follows the animals that live in the midst of this treasured wilderness. Yellowstone is very unlikely to erupt in the 1,000 yrs, even in the 10,000 yrs!
What about Kracatoa the 2nd worst volcano and Yellowstone the 1st worst volcano
Give me an answer! You seriously don't know the most dangerous volcano on Earth! You don't even know what is the largest volcano in our solar system which is Olympus Mons!
my fart is more powerfull
and its close to erupting i ate onions
you could all be exstinked
Oh please, seiismc activity is also directly related to volcanic activity. Unless this was a volcano from a hot spot, it was caused from the subduction of an oceanic plate. So, stop being so picky ,and how about getting a job as a paralegal speculating every person's last word. Jesus, get a life.
giro get a brain you dufiss
we have bigger volcanoes in newzealand.u no the rugby world champs .yeah.where did the poms get just sayin.
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