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Volcanic Eruptions facts

While investigating facts about Volcanic Eruptions New Zealand and Volcanic Eruptions 2019, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In 1902 a volcanic eruption flattened an entire city, killing everyone but two people. One was a prisoner who only survived because he'd stabbed a policeman and had been put into solitary confinement. He was horribly burned, was pardoned of his crimes and became a circus attraction.

how volcanic eruptions occur?

The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, travelled around the world four times, and was clearly heard 3,000 miles away.

What causes volcanic eruptions?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are the 3 main causes of volcanic eruptions. Here are 50 of the best facts about Volcanic Eruptions Today and Volcanic Eruptions 2020 I managed to collect.

what volcanic eruptions are?

  1. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa (one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history) was so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors 64km (40mi) away, created tsunamis over 40 metres high, and was so violent that it was heard 3,110km (1,930mi) away in Australia

  2. Scientists have claimed that The Biblical plagues that devastated Ancient Egypt in the Old Testament could all be explained. Toxic algae stained the Nile blood red, which forced frogs to leave the water, leading to insects and a volcanic eruption trigged more plagues

  3. Even though the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens is considered a medium sized eruption relative to other volcanic eruptions, the landslide that happened less than a second before was the largest landslide in recorded history

  4. Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, has volcanic eruptions so powerful that they can be seen with large telescopes on Earth

  5. Harry Glicken's was devastated when his mentor David Johnson died during the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980. Glicken met the same fate 11 year's later during the eruption of Mt Unzen in Japan. Glicken and Johnson are the only American volcanologists to have died in volcanic eruptions.

  6. Concerns are increasing that Campi Flegrei - a "supervolcano" very close to the Italian city of Naples - could erupt again for the first time since 1538. Previous eruptions have triggered volcanic winters globally, causing widespread crop failures and resulting in famines.

  7. Lake Toba is the largest volcanic eruption to have happened in the last 25 million years, and was believed to have killed most of the human race at the time, causing a population bottleneck which affects genetic diversity to this day.

  8. A volcanic eruption in Indonisia in 1815 temporarily altered the Earth's climate resulting in many parts of the US Northeast accumulating 6 inches of snow from June 6th-7th the following year

  9. In 2000, when several planets happened to be close to one another, astrologers predicted that there would be catastrophes, volcanic eruptions and tidal waves. This caused an entire sea-side village to panic and abandon their houses. Nothing predicted happened and their houses were burgled

volcanic eruptions facts
What are the different types of volcanic eruptions?

Volcanic Eruptions data charts

For your convenience take a look at Volcanic Eruptions figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

volcanic eruptions fact data chart about Volcanic eruption happening at Mount Agung, shown by NASA sa
Volcanic eruption happening at Mount Agung, shown by NASA satellite that measures sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere

volcanic eruptions fact data chart about Volcanic Eruptions 1883-2018 (Smithsonian Global Volcanism D
Volcanic Eruptions 1883-2018 (Smithsonian Global Volcanism Data)

Why volcanic eruptions happen?

You can easily fact check why volcanic eruptions are dangerous by examining the linked well-known sources.

The deadliest volcanic eruption in history: the effects of the Icelandic volcano Laki killed 25% of the Icelandic population, at least 23,000 people in Britain, more deaths in Europe, freak weather for a year, and may have caused a famine in Egypt which killed 1/6th of Egypt's population.

Sunsets painted after the eruption of Mt.Tambora in 1815 all have distinctive warm hues dabbed in the paintings' skies indicative of the presence of volcanic ash and dust in the atmosphere when the artworks were created. - source

About the Year Without a Summer. In 1816, a combination of volcanic eruptions led to snow in June, the creation of the bicycle, and the writing of Frankenstein. - source

The extinction of the San Benedicto Rock Wren, a previously unendangered species, can be traced almost to the minute on the morning of August 1st, 1952, when a volcanic eruption covered their entire island.

The celebrity holdout of the Mt. St Helens eruption, Harry Truman, refused to believe the volcano would be a threat to him. His family was futile in an attempt to bribe him away with whisky. On 05/18/80 Harry was buried under 150 ft of volcanic ash with his 16 cats. - source

When volcanic eruptions occur?

Human skeletons were found floating on rafts of volcanic pumice on the Indian ocean a year after the Krakatoa eruption of 1883

How volcanic eruptions affect climate?

The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away.

The Toba Super-eruption was a supervolcanic eruption that occurred 75,000 years ago. It has been suggested this caused a volcanic winter lasting 6-10 years. The genetic bottleneck theory says the world population declined to 1,000-10,000 breeding pairs which we are all descended from.

1816 was a year "without summer". In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as Pennsylvania. Frost was reported as far south as Virginia. In April 1815, one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded human history had occurred in Indonesia.

The loudest sound on Earth is a volcanic eruption and it can kill you on the spot.

The main natural ignition sources that can cause wildfires include sparks from rock falls, volcanic eruptions, spontaneous combustion, and lightning strikes.

When volcanic eruptions happen?

Pigeons have very sensitive sense of hearing. They are able to detect distant storms, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

When a volcanic eruption threatened to destroy their harbor, the people of Heimaey, Iceland saved it by constantly spraying seawater on the lava

In 1916, a volcanic eruption blocked the sun causing Canada and the US to experience a summer with extremely cold temperatures.

When stratovolcanoes erupt they often send out volcanic bombs that can be as large as a car and can travel as far as 15 miles.

On the 27th of August 1883 the loudest noise in recorded history came from a volcanic eruption that had a force 10,000 times that of a hydrogen bomb.

How volcanic eruptions affect climate change?

The size of pumice can range from tiny dust particles to pumice pieces the size of a house. Many cubic kilometers of pumice can be ejected during large volcanic eruptions.

The region that encompasses Skaftafell National Park was at one time dotted with several farms. In the Middle Ages volcanic eruptions resulting in the farmers abandoning their land.

A whole population escaped one of the world's largest volcanic events in Earth's history by fleeing their civilisation in the late bronze era Akrotiri (Minoan eruption) as no human bones were found.

Just to the south of Mexico City is the Sierra Nevada (Snowy Mountains), also known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. It is a chain of volcanic mountains that traverses Mexico coast to coast for over 600 miles. Periodic eruptions are a major cause of smog and air pollution in Mexico City.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried under layers of mud and volcanic material. This eruption resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.

In the past 10,000 years it is believed that there have been 1511 volcanic eruptions. 699 of these eruptions were from stratovolcanoes.

[t]he 1980 [volcanic] eruption of Mount St. Helens wiped out a small resident population of about 15 mountain goats [Oreamnos americanus], but in the years since the eruption, mountain goats have been moving back on their own accord." They "have been spotted inside the crater with regularity."

Trilobites were made extinct approximately 250 million years ago when 90 percent of all of the species on earth were wiped out. This event is referred to as the "Great Dying", or "Permian Extinction". It is not known whether it was an exploding supernova or volcanic eruption that caused the event.

Pipes from when a deep-source volcanic eruption brings magma up from the mantle and they are the origin for most of the Earth's diamond deposits.

When gas-charged andesitic magmas erupt it, they cause many volcanic plumes and ash eruptions. The pressure of the gas causes the eruptions, and then blows large amounts of tiny rock and magma particles into the air and carried long distances by the wind. They may also cause problems for aircraft downwind from the volcano.

There is a lava cave system where lava tubes were formed when the lava erupting from the volcano cooled. This cave system, along with Halla Mountain and Seongsan Sunrise peak contributed to the island being classified as a World Heritage Site in 2007 by UNESCO. It's referred to as Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes.

Before the eruption of Mount St. Helens, longtime area resident Harry R. Truman stated, "You couldn't pull me out with a mule team. That mountain's part of Truman and Truman's part of that mountain." Truman's lodge would be covered in 150 feet of volcanic debris by the eruption.

The volcanic eruption at Mount Pinatubo in 1991 resulted in a cubic mile of ash and pumice lapilli being released into the atmosphere and falling to the surface blanketing the countryside.

The blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting 'The Scream' was because of the ash from the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused vivid red sunsets for years afterwards

The formation of rhyolite usually takes place in continental or continent-margin volcanic eruptions where the granitic magma reaches the surface. It rarely is produced during oceanic eruptions.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Volcanic Eruptions. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Volcanic Eruptions so important!

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