Top 5 Volcanos

Phenomenon: The Top 5 Deadliest Volcanic Eruptions

1. Tambora located in Sumbawa, Indonesia.Tambora is a stratovolcano, forming the Sanggar peninsula of Sumbawa Island. The diameter of the volcano at sea-level is approximately of 60 kilometers. The 1815 eruption formed a caldera about 6 kilometers in diameter. The caldera is 1,110 meters in depth. The 1815 eruption of Tambora was the largest eruption in historic time. About 150 cubic kilometers of ash were erupted . Ash fell as far as 1,300 kilometers from the volcano. In central Java and Kalimantan,900 kilometers from the eruption, one centimeter of ash fell. The Volcanic Explosivity of the eruption was 7. The eruption column reached a height of about 44 kilometers. The collapse of the eruption column produced numerous pyroclastic flows. As these hot pyroclastic flows reached the ocean where they caused additional explosions. During these explosions, most of the fine-fraction of the ash was removed. The eruption formed a caldera. An estimated 92,000 people were killed by the eruption. About 10,000 direct deaths were caused by bomb impacts, tephra fall, and pyroclastic flows. An estimated 82,000 were killed indirectly by the eruption by starvation, disease, and hunger.
Sources: Oregonstate
2. Krakatau The Krakatau lies in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. Collapse of the ancestral Krakatau edifice, perhaps in 416 AD, formed a 7-kilometers-wide caldera. Remnants of this ancestral volcano are preserved in Verlaten and Lang Islands; subsequently Rakata, Danan and Perbuwatan volcanoes were formed, coalescing to create the pre-1883 Krakatau Island. Caldera collapse during the catastrophic 1883 eruption destroyed Danan and Perbuwatan volcanoes, and left only a remnant of Rakata volcano. This eruption, the 2nd largest in Indonesia during historical time, caused more than 36,000 fatalities, most as a result of devastating tsunamis that swept the adjacent coastlines of Sumatra and Java. Pyroclastic surges traveled 40 km across the Sunda Strait and reached the Sumatra coast. After a quiescence of less than a half century, the post-collapse cone of Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) was constructed within the 1883 caldera at a point between the former cones of Danan and Perbuwatan. Anak Krakatau has been the site of frequent eruptions since 1927. Recent eruptions of Krakatau have been at Anak Krakatau, an island that emerged in 1927. One tourist was killed and five more injured by an explosion at Anak Krakatau in 1993. Anak Krakatau is undergoing relatively quiet periods, lasting at least a couple days, punctuated by periods of nearly continuous eruption. Mike Lyvers visited the volcano on May 17, 1997. Eruptions consist of minor ash emissions, accompanied at times with a few bombs. Lyvers reported that occasional larger explosions sent incandescent ash high into the sky. These larger explosions generated a spectacular displays of volcanic lightning and covered the cone with glowing bombs. No obvious pattern was detected in the intensity of eruption.
Source of information: Volcano Listserv, 26 May 1997.
3. Mount Pelée is a dormant volcano on the northern tip of the French overseas department of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. It is among the deadliest stratovolcanoes on Earth; its volcanic cone composed of layers of volcanic ash and hardened lava.
The volcano is now famous for its extremely destructive eruption in 1902 and the destruction that resulted, now dubbed the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The eruption killed about 30,121 people, most deaths in the destroyed Saint-Pierre, at that time the largest city in Martinique, due to its deadly pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flows completely destroyed St. Pierre, Martinique, a town of 30,000 people, following the eruption of Mont Pelée in 1902. The eruption left only two survivors in the direct path of the volcano, one alive because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell and the other, living on the edge of the city, escaped with severe burns.[10] Mount Pelée is made up mostly of pyroclastic material. The event marked the only major volcanic disaster in the history of France and its overseas territories.
Source : wikipedia
4. Nevado del Ruiz is an active volcano located in central Colombia, about 150 kilometers due west of Bogata. When the seismograph began to record the violent earth-shaking caused by yet another eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia, no one thought that a few hours later more than 23,000 people would be dead, killed by lahars (volcanic debris flows) in towns and villages several tens of kilometers away from the volcano. Before the fatal eruption the volcano was being monitored by scientists at a seismic station located 9 kilometers from the summit, and information about the volcano's activity was being sent to Colombian emergency-response coordinators who were charged with alerting the public of the danger from the active volcano. Furthermore, areas known to be in the pathways of lahars had already been identified on maps, and communities at risk had been told of their precarious locations.
Source : CVO website
5. Unzen located on the Island of Kyushu about 40 kilometers east of Nagasaki,Japan. Unzen is well know for Japan's greatest volcanic disaster. In 1792, about a month after lava stopped erupting from the volcano, a landslide from nearby Mount Mayuyama swept through ancient Shimabara City, entered the sea, and generated a tsunami that struck nearby areas. More than 15,000 people were killed by the landslide and tsunami. The amphitheater-shaped scar of the landslide is still clearly visible on Mount Mayuyama just above the city.
Source: CVO website