Top 5 Deadliest Volcanoes

There exist a large number of volcanoes worldwide, but all are not hazardous as such. A few of them only cause panic with their affection to dance with devastation at their own wish. Volcanoes become destructive when they emit hot magma tied with ash and gases. Degree of such destruction depends upon various factors that may include:
*   Speed of eruption
*   Height of eruption
*   Availability of gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, etc.
*   Duration of deadly eruption
*   Nature of human habitation around, etc.

Several volcanic eruptions have so far been marked as deadly as far as their destructive power is concerned. Deadliness of a volcano is always not measured considering only the direct erupt-impact; post-eruption impact on the adjoining environment also contributes greatly in deciding deadliness of a volcanic eruption. It’s not feasible to portrait all the deadly volcanoes here; however, devastating descriptions for only 5 deadliest volcanoes are given below.

1. The Tambora volcano. The volcano is located in Sumbawa, Indonesia with a summit elevation of 2850 m. It is a stratovolcano.

More than 92 000 people had been killed as a direct impact of the historic Tambora eruption occurred in 1815. Pyroclastic flows had taken ten thousand lives immediately. Another around 117,000 deaths were reported in the post-eruption period owing to starvation and diseases. Around 100 cubic km of magma was released during the deadly eruption and a tsunami with a wave height of 10 m was reported. The year 1816 is known as the year without a summer as the Tambora aerosols had affected the global climate severely by blocking out sunlight and thereby reducing the global temperature considerably.

The Tambora eruption of 1815 is considered as the deadliest volcanic explosions known. After starting on April 5, 1815, the eruption reached its peak on April 10, 1815. Severe darkness was observed for 2 days around the volcano covering about 600 km.

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2. The Krakatau volcano. The volcano is located in Sunda Strait, Indonesia with a summit elevation of 813 m.

It was August of 1883, when a series of deadly explosions was heard from the Krakatau volcano. The devastating explosions were so intensive that they were experienced even from a distance of nearly 2,000 km! More than 4,600 people were died immediately facing the extremely hot pyroclastic flow. Additionally, about 32,000 people lost their lives hit by a tsunami resulted out of the lethal Krakatau eruptions.

On August 26, 1883, the deadly volcanic eruption had created an ash column of a height of 36 km. Main island consisting of about 165 villages were completely destroyed during the devastating 1883 Krakatau volcanic eruption.

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3. The Mount Pelee eruption. Mount Pelée can be seen located in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. It is a stratovolcano with an elevation of 4583 feet and is famous for the massive destruction it caused in the first week of May, 1902.

The 1902 Mount Pelee volcanic eruption is marked as the worst volcanic catastrophe of the last century. Lethal pyroclastic flows of the in-famous eruption took the lives of more than 30,100 people severely destroying the Saint-Pierre, Martinique.

While giving description of the devastating tragedy, Compère-Léandre, a lucky survivor, said “I felt a terrible wind blowing, the earth began to tremble, and the sky suddenly became dark. I turned to go into the house, with great difficultuy climbed the three or four steps that separated me from my room, and felt my arms and legs burning, also my body. I dropped upon a table. At this moment four others sought refuge in my room, crying and writhing with pain, although their garments showed no sign of having been touched by flame. At the end of 10 minutes one of these, the young Delavaud girl, aged about 10 years, fell dead; the others left. I got up and went to another room, where I found the father Delavaud, still clothed and lying on the bed, dead. He was purple and inflated, but the clothing was intact. Crazed and almost overcome, I threw myself on a bed, inert and awaiting death. My senses returned to me in perhaps an hour, when I beheld the roof burning. With sufficient strength left, my legs bleeding and covered with burns, I ran to Fonds-Sait-Denis, six kilometers from Saint-Pierre.”

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4. The Nevado del Ruiz volcanic eruption. The Nevado del Ruiz, alias El Mesa de Herveo, is a stratovolcano that has an elevation of 17,388 ft and is located in the Tolima Department of Colombia.

On the ill-fated night of November 13, 1985, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano eruption had caused about 23,000 people to lost their lives. During the eruption, devastating pyroclastic flows carrying boiling mudflows had completely inundated Armero, thereby causing massive destruction to the sleeping Columbian town. Chinchina is the other town that was largely gutted by the eruption.

The Nevado del Ruiz had generated a massive 35 million tonnes of erupted material during the historic 1985 eruption. In Volcanic Explosivity Index, the eruption has been marked against a value of 3.

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5. The Unzen volcanic eruption. The Unzen stratovolcano is sited on the Kyushu island, Japan. It had erupted in 1792 killing about 9,500 people by its hot pyroclastic flows. The eruption had triggered a devastating tsunami that caused another 5,500 people to die taking the total toll to nearly 15,000.

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