1. The best ofThe best of
Volcanic EruptionVolcanic Eruption
Balraj ShuklaBalraj Shukla

2. Mount EtnaMount Etna
One of the most impressive and active
volcanoes, Mount Etna that dominates the
landscape of the eastern coast of Sicily in Italy is
breathtakingly beautiful. It explodes 10 to 20
times in a century. Each time it’s sides split open
in glowing cracks out of which molten lava pours
out. It has erupted 200 times and the worst was
in 1669. A river of red hot bubbling lava swept
over a nearby city and it is believed that over
1,00,000 people were killed in this catastrophe.
Etna’s latest eruption was on May 13,2008.

3. Mount LakiMount Laki
The massive eruption of Laki volcano occurred in
June 1783, killing many thousands, and
spreading a massive haze that covered most of
Europe and parts of North America. This cloud
was even reported to have extended into Asia
and North Africa! This volcano even caused
unprecedented weather patterns, violent
thunderstorms, hailstorms, killing cattle in the
fields and destroying crops. The weather was so
harsh that the Icelanders finished all their stored
food. The result was a wide spread famine that
killed over 9500 people.

4. Tambora VolcanoTambora Volcano
1815, ‘The year without summer’ was called so
because of the series of Volcanic Eruption of
Tambora on April 10,1815 that lasted several days.
The volcanic column , after flying 40 kms into the
sky, returned to the ground, creating a huge flow of
ash, pumice and debris. It killed more than 10000
people. The ash that fell from Tambora traveled as
far as 1300kms away. Tsunamis as high as 5 meters
were seen, resulting in floods, on many Indonesian
islands. 200 million tons of gas called sulphur dioxide
was shot up into the atmosphere. The temperature
was lowered as much sunlight didn’t enter the earth’s
surface and this led to killing of crops and creatures.

5. Krakatoa VolcanoKrakatoa Volcano
Krakatoa is a volcano on the Indonesian island of
Rakata in the Sunda strait. The worst eruption of this
volcano was in August 1883. Due to severe blasts the
sea water entered the cracks of this volcano . Due to
superheated steam most of the island was destroyed.
It’s explosion was heard as far as Australia 3500km
away and on the island of Rodrigues in Mauritius
4800km away which is a record explosion. No one
was killed in the explosion surprisingly but 36000
people were killed by the tsunamis created by the
explosion! For many months spectacular sunsets were
created due to that explosion.

6. Mount PeleeMount Pelee
One of the most famous volcanoes on the earth,
Mount Pelee, stands on the Martinque island of West
Indies. It’s eruption in 1902 destroyed the whole city of
St.Pierre, with a death toll of 40000 people. The time
of eruption was on 8th
May 1902 at 8:08am. Two big
clouds were right above the volcano and as it erupted
one was thrown in the atmosphere and the other
towards St.Pierre which destroyed the whole village in
just a few minutes. After the disastrous eruption, the
volcano erupted a few times but that wasn’t disastrous
as everything had destroyed already.

7. Mount St. HelensMount St. Helens
On May18,1980 in Washington State, Mount St. Helen
erupted like a hydrogen bomb and 396m of it’s top
part was destroyed and sent the debris 19kms away
covering three states Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The eruption caused total devastation to land, lakes
and forests. 62 people were dead and there was a
loss of a billion dollar. Mount St. Helens has now
become a National Volcanic Eruption Monument, and
the U.S. uses it as the site to educate people about
the danger of volcanic eruption.

8. Nevado del Ruiz volcanoNevado del Ruiz volcano
Nevado del Ruiz , is a volcano situated at Columbia
and was known as ‘The Sleeping Lion’ as it had not
erupted for 150 years. But in 1985 it erupted, shooting
ash 8000m into the air. No one was affected by it, but
the ash fell at a town called Armero 50km away. A
torrent mud cascaded and it was flooded in the town.
The eruption cost Columbia 7.7 billion dollars and
20000 of the 23000 inhabitants were killed. The next
day it felt as if there was no city at that place.

9. Mount PinatuboMount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is a volcano in Philippines, which had
not erupted for 500 years and so was called ‘The
Sleeping Giant.’ But in June 1991 it woke with the
second largest volcano of the 20th
century and lasted
for 9 hours. It created an earthquake and released 15
to 30 million tons of sulphur dioxide. The eruption
plume was 34km high and over 400km wide! This was
the second largest after the Krakatoa eruption in 1883
and 10 times larger than Mt. St. Helens in 1980. It
ejected so much debris in the atmosphere that the
global temperature dropped slightly for the next 15
months.

10. Mt. Etna Mt. Laki
Tambora volcano Krakatoa volcano

11. Mt.Pelee Mt. St. Helens
Nevado del Ruiz Mt. Pinatubo