A story about a volcanic eruption. Volcanoes eruptions of the largest volcanoes

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I greet you, dear reader, on the pages of my blog. Today I will tell you about the largest volcanic eruptions. From the previous articles, you probably already understood that it is quite difficult to single out a volcano, the eruption of which can be called the most, the same situation develops with earthquakes.

Other volcanoes will soon be monitored for their emissions into the atmosphere, although there are still problems that need to be addressed, satellite monitoring of their compositions is likely to develop in the future, and it is likely that we will know to better assess and predict the risk eruptions on more than 500 known active volcanoes on the continents.

Katla after Eyjafjallajokull?

Will Katla be out? Katla, the most scary volcano Iceland has recently shown some signs of activity. Is this threat taken very seriously because Katla hasn't been as active as we have to prepare for huge clouds of smoke? You certainly haven't forgotten about Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland's volcano erupted. It has remained in the collective memory as many holidaymakers had to postpone or even cancel their stay due to disruptions in European air traffic.

Over its long century, our planet has been subjected to many catastrophes, which in turn endangered all life on it, including humanity. It turned out that these sad pages of its history, marked by periods of sharp climate changes and catastrophic extinction of flora and fauna, are associated with the fall of a large asteroid, or with the eruption of a supervolcano.

But the eruption caused much more damage than the vacation delays. The airspace of several countries is partially or completely closed. In addition to Iceland's most complete isolation, the economic consequences were disastrous. Official figures report an estimated loss of US $ 5 billion to US $ 5 billion for travel sectors including airlines, tour operators, airports, etc. Either way, it looks like they want it back this year, and Katla, which is already shaking up a lot of people before it flared up yet.

Cloudiness at 25 km

On the this moment experts only recorded seismic activity around Katla. But they are right to worry, because between Eyjafjallajokull and Katla, the latter is most feared. The first movements of seismic origin around the Katla volcano have already bothered geologists, but this is literally panic, since the aftershocks that occurred on August 29. At a value of 4 on the Richter scale, there is something of an alarm.

Large-scale eruptions threw millions of tons of ash into the Earth's stratosphere. They formed a continuous cloud over the planet, which does not transmit light to its surface. The temperature suddenly dropped, photosynthesis slowed down, because it is impossible without sunlight. As a result, the vegetation perished, which led to the extinction of herbivores, and then of predators.

And I must say that his profile is not very encouraging. Did you know, for example, that Katla erupts on average every 80 years? And for sure, his last eruption goes back to the fact that we are good at that time. Katla can then spit up to 700 million cubic meters of ash, resulting in clouds almost 25 km high.

And if it was a false alarm?

Such a seismic movement already happened about forty years ago, but there was no eruption. Experts hope this is still a false alarm. This is a brutal and powerful flood that destroys everything in its path. This phenomenon occurs after the sudden emptying of a glacial lake due to a volcanic eruption. On the other hand, geophysicist Pall Einarsson reassured the general public by saying that recent shocks are not necessarily due to magma activity, but rather crustassociated with the volcano.


Subsequently, grandiose eruptions abruptly filled the atmosphere with carbon. The greenhouse effect warmed up the planet, including the oceans, slowed down the circulation of water and drastically reduced the concentration of oxygen in it.

In other words, according to this gentleman, Katla will not necessarily flare up immediately. Moreover, a volcanic eruption can take several years. But on the other hand, Christine Jonsdottir, manager of the Icelandic Meteorological Institute, confirms that Katla is very active volcano... Moreover, it has been closely watched for years. There will be an eruption, but when? Tomorrow or fifty years from now?

Huge damage will be done if Katla erupts. This will undoubtedly cause flooding in the surrounding villages due to the melting of the ice that covers it. The impact will also affect the rest of Europe. This is not a catastrophic opinion, say volcanology experts worldwide. Just take back the history of these two volcanic regions to see that it’s just a matter of time before another eruption occurs.

The accumulation of hydrogen sulfide began in the oceans, which killed all living things. Thus, at the end of the Triassic period, radical changes in the Earth's climate took place, accompanied by another mass extinction of biological species.

Devastating volcanic eruptions

In addition to large-scale outpourings of magma, volcanoes became the causes of grand cataclysms. Several such major catastrophes are in the memory of mankind. In particular, the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 is well known, when Pompeii and Herculaneum died under lava and ash.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it will come. The time of geology is much longer than the time of human life, and this certainly reassures us: we tend to move the problem there, rather than feel it urgent. Today, three million Neapolitans stand on one of the highest seismic, volcanic and hydrogeological zones in the world, a region between two active volcanoes, one of which is the "superpulse", one of the few cauldrons - ten or twelve in the world that have a diameter several tens of kilometers and which, in the event of an eruption, are capable of producing ultra-regional destruction.

In 1883, the volcano Krakatoa began to operate actively between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Its crash has been heard in Australia and Africa. The tsunami wave from that cataclysm circled the Earth five times. The victims were 36 thousand people.


The factors that make the metropolitan area a "red zone" are essentially three: the likelihood that an eruptive event will occur over a period of time; “Value exposed”, that is, the number of human lives, property, artistic and archaeological goods at risk; the vulnerability of its territory, that is, a legacy that will be destroyed by a catastrophic event.

Giuseppe Mastrororenzo told me that he has repeatedly reported on the real situation in the city of Naples and still strongly supports the need for a serious plan of action in emergencyto deal with a possible eruption. What emerged from our phone calls is clear: delaying an emergency plan means gambling with Neapolitan lives.

In world culture, references to another significant volcanic catastrophe have survived - the one in which the mysterious Atlantis perished. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, relying on earlier legends, wrote about the prosperous country of the Atlanteans, which was swallowed up by the sea during unprecedented earthquakes in a day.

Most scientists now believe that the myth is based on the real events of the collapse of the Minoan civilization caused by the explosion of the Santorini volcano around 1460 BC. e.

The point is that the population has not yet been invested by the regional catastrophe. Its publication showed the complete inadequacy of the contingency plan established by the Civil Protection, underestimating the impact of the "gas" eruption.

Signs of the passage of people were engraved within a 25 km radius of the volcano. Geology says that what happened in the past will return to the same place and in the same way even in the future. For this reason, the volcanologist made a map representing two levels of the eruption of the stream, similar to that of the Bronze Age: the so-called fallout, that is, the fall of ash and lapilli, which during the previous eruption were mainly to the northeast and the level of pyroclastic flows which headed west and northwest into the territory of the city of Naples.

Archeology testifies that the palaces of Crete in the II millennium BC. e. collapsed from powerful earthquake and tsunami waves, as well as covered with ash from Santorini. According to scientists, its explosion was ten times more powerful than in Krakatoa. The released energy could be compared to 1 million atomic bombs of Hiroshima and had disastrous consequences for the entire Eastern Mediterranean, especially for Crete.

He then developed numerical simulations, creating hazard maps and demonstrating how the flow rate of a similar eruption would be at least 25 km. What the professor contested vigorously, besides the lack of an emergency plan, was the absolutely absurd fact that Naples was not yet considered a city potentially at risk for Vesuvius or the Phlegran Fields. Moreover, his simulation of the fallout was clear: if Vesuvius had erupted, the 95% chance would have been completely covered by the entire city of Naples with a layer of ash and lapilli about ten inches thick, maybe even meters thick.


Earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic ash destroyed the cities of the vast region. The Old Testament mentions the impenetrable "Egyptian darkness" for three days then enveloped the country on the Nile. Similar phenomena were observed during explosions of other volcanoes.

During the same research period Mastrororenzo, the High Risk Commission, which is the link between the scientific community and the National Civil Protection Service, or the body responsible for providing technical and scientific opinions on assessment, prognosis and prevention, continued but did not express any concern about the fact. that Naples had not yet been included in the emergency plan. The attitude of the "fideists" prevailed, the tendency not to see the urgency of the problem, to hope for the providential intervention of San Gennaro in turn.

In particular, during the already mentioned eruption of Krakatoa, the dust cloud was so thick that darkness enveloped the territory within a radius of 200 km from the volcano for a whole day.

With the Santorini explosion, scientists associate some oddities that happened to the Jews when they, led by Moses, fled from Egyptian captivity. It is about the pillar of fire that they saw in the north and the sea going out of their way. Perhaps the latter is explained by the approaching tsunami, the wave of which swept over the pursuers of the Egyptians.

Ten years have passed from this civil protection dispute led by Guido Bertolaso, and the volcanologist has not stopped making numerical reports based on his research. But what has changed in the meantime? In terms of little or no prevention. In other words, the attitude of the authorities' absurd indifference to the geological issues of the Neapolitan region has not changed.

A striking example of such indifference is the Bagnoli perforation. A month after the start of the perforation in the Pozzuoli area, there were about two hundred shakes. Also on this occasion, Professor Mastrororenzo was practically the only one who challenged the author of the study, which was then interrupted by the sequestration of the "future Bagnoli" and the opening of an investigation by the prosecutor's office after reports from some citizens.


The eruption of Santorini did not destroy the Minoans, but weakened them so much that in 1450 BC. e. Crete was conquered by the Greeks, and the cultural heritage of the previous ones became the basis for the Mycenaean civilization of the Achaean Greeks.

In the giant crater of a volcano with a diameter of 14 km, the waves of the Aegean Sea are now rustling, and the island of Santorini itself has the shape of a sickle and, in fact, formed by its walls. This piece of land raised above the waters hides a layer of volcanic ash and pumice 15-25 m deep, under which the ruins of a city with three-story houses, water pipes and sewerage systems have been excavated.

But according to what criteria was the resolution in the volcanic area? Perforations are known to be hazardous to operations: the companies performing the work cannot guarantee safety because they violate the so-called “precautionary principle”. Mayor of Naples, who authorized it?

Certainly not Civil Protection, which in an area without an emergency plan, in this case, refused any responsibility. This is exactly what happens in the case of Vesuvius and the Phlegrean Fields: you choose the smaller scenario. This attitude of optimism or disinterest is perhaps normal in a community that lacks knowledge of times and geological issues, but is not tolerated by authorities and researchers who must document hazard levels and plan safety actions.

It seems that the city on the island of Santorini was the center of Minoan culture and died with it as a result of a grandiose volcanic cataclysm. These dramatic events, obviously, formed the basis of the legend about the death of Atlantis.


This is unacceptable because every day is a deal with the local population. On the Civil Protection website, it states: In light of the history of the Vesuvius eruption, it is expected that if activity resumes within a few decades, the next eruption will be a subplanar explosive. The scenario that, according to scientists, is possible, consists in the initial formation of several kilometers of eruptive column, in which a volcanic bomb falls and is blocked in the immediate vicinity of the crater, as well as small particles up to tens of miles in the direction of the prevailing wind; after the collapse of the column, pyroclastic castings are formed, which run along the slopes of the volcanoes for several kilometers, until they reach the sea in a matter of minutes.

Therefore, friends, the eruptions of Cotopaxi or Mauna Loa are small things compared to Vesuvius, Krakatak and Santorini.

Were the eruptions stronger than Vesuvius, Krakatoa and Santorini?

More recently, it became known about the most terrible volcanic catastrophe in the history of mankind, when the force of the eruption exceeded many times the above-mentioned explosions of Vesuvius, Krakatoa and Santorini.

But the hypothesis of the civil protection advisers does not at all convince Professor Mastrororenzo: There is no scientific basis for choosing an intermediate, sub-plan scenario. The paradox of this story is that a group of consultants, who declared the likelihood of a pluvial eruption in Vesuvius from 4 to 20%, made another publication, which clarifies a very important aspect: according to the study, Comparative between Vesuvius and other volcanoes active in the world, it was established that a closed volcanic building is completely unpredictable, that is, there is no scientific and statistical research: the volcano does what it wants.

In the early 1980s, while drilling an ice sheet in Greenland, a 74,000-year-old layer of ice was found that clearly contained large amounts of sulfur. volcanic origin.

When studying mollusks in ocean sediments, they found a sharp drop in temperature in layers dating back to the same time. Geological horizons of the same era on the coast of the Indian Ocean contain powerful deposits of volcanic ash.

The research led the researchers to Sumatra, to the shores of the huge Lake Toba covered with this mass and filled with lava. It turned out that this is a volcanic caldera filled with water, measuring 100 x 30 km. As a result of the eruption of a colossal amount of magma, ash and gases into the bowels of the earth a huge cavity was formed, the "roof" of which subsided, and the depression (caldera) turned into a vast reservoir.


Scientists managed to recreate the catastrophic phenomena caused by the eruption of a supervolcano on the island of Java 74 thousand years ago. In terms of explosion power, it was at least 100 times higher than Krakatoa. If the latter threw 13 cubic meters. km. tectonic material, the Toba volcano - more than 1 thousand cubic meters. km.

Within a radius of more than 3 thousand km from the latter, the earth's surface was covered with a layer of 30 centimeters of toxic ash, which was fatal to plants. In some places in India, its depth reached 3 m. Volcanic ash consisted of small fragments of quartz, which, when inhaled, killed animals and people. Sulfur compounds fell out along with the rain, which destroyed all life on land.

A direct consequence of the colossal release of ash and sulfates into the stratosphere was the "volcanic winter". According to some estimates, it lasted six years throughout the planet.

Supervolcanoes at present

The dimensions of the Toba caldera (100 x 30 km) allow it to be classified as a supervolcano, of which there are several known on Earth (the eruption of each of them threatens humanity with a planetary catastrophe). The slow rise of its bottom testifies to the accumulation of magma, which will inevitably end in the future with a new explosion.


There is a dormant supervolcano in Europe. These are the so-called Phlegrean fields (from the Greek "burning") near Naples in Italy. According to Greek mythology, it was here that the battle of the Olympic gods with the titans took place.

Phlegrean Fields is a supervolcano caldera covered in craters, lava flows, ash and pumice. Active tectonic processes are evidenced by frequent earthquakes and numerous fumaroles, from which gases escape.

Vesuvius may belong to a single volcanic system with the Phlegraean fields. Its location in densely populated Europe makes this supervolcano especially dangerous for humanity, even despite its relatively small caldera (20 x 10 km).

According to geology and archeology, the last eruption was 38 thousand years ago, then covered with ashes all of Southern Europe to the Don in the east, where paleolithic sites are being excavated near the village of Kostenki (Voronezh region of the Russian Federation), ash layers from the Phlegrean fields up to 2 cm thick were revealed.


There is even an unconfirmed hypothesis that the last Neanderthals in Europe died precisely because of the explosion of the Phlegrean fields, and the first Homo sapiens came to the ashes of deserted Europe.

The supervolcano in the Yellowstone Park in the United States is considered dangerous for today's humanity. It has a caldera of 50 x 70 km. Within its limits there are a thousand hot geysers, and its bottom is gradually rising, which indicates an active accumulation of magma.


It is known that the Yellowstone supervolcano erupted with a period of 600 thousand years. What matters is that with last eruption 640 thousand years have passed, that is, there is every reason to expect a new cataclysm.

Japanese scientists concluded that the probability of an explosion american supervolcano in this age 1: 6. Its consequences for humanity can be fatal. After all, if Toba threw out 1,000 km3 of lava, then Yellowstone could erupt 2,500 km3, which will lead to complete destruction western states of the USA.

The streets of Los Angeles will be covered with a 1.5 meter layer of ash. Earthquakes of colossal force will provoke volcanic eruptions all over the planet. Tsunamis of unprecedented heights will destroy thousands settlements on the coast of all continents, including New York, London, St. Petersburg.


Ashes will cover the fertile fields and, together with sulfur gases, will eclipse the sun, leading to a long “volcanic winter”. A sharp cold snap will lead to extinction and migration to the south of the population of the northern countries (Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, northern Russia).

Falling temperatures, ash, weakening of photosynthesis due to lack of solar radiation will lead to planetary collapse agriculture and, as a consequence, to world hunger.

Highly populated countries such as China and India will be particularly affected. The total human losses in the first years after the eruption will exceed 2 billion. Lack of resources will lead to numerous armed conflicts, and perhaps the collapse of the modern world order.

Thanks to scientific research over the past 30 years, humanity has learned about the potential threats to life on the planet, both from space and from its depths. However, these dangers should not be overstated.


Much real threat Earth civilizations are not cosmic bodies or supervolcanoes, but paradoxically, our technological progress. So, before dealing with the natural challenges to humanity, it is worth finding effective protection against the global threats generated by us ourselves.

That, in principle, is all that I wanted to tell today. Don't forget to subscribe to blog news so you don't miss out on the highlights on the blog. Share the article with your friends on social networks. Until next time, bye, bye.

There have been a huge number of volcanic eruptions in history. Some eruptions brought destruction and death a large number people. Online magazine Factinteres will tell about the 5 largest volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind.

Vesuvius August 24, 79 AD

Many people know the history of the city of Pompeii. It was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that led to that disaster. In addition to Pompeii, 3 more cities disappeared - Oplontia, Stbia and Herculaneum.

Most of the population of these cities still managed to escape. Many suffered not so much from lava as from sulfurous gases. The total death toll was approximately 2,000. There were so many ash and pumice that the ruins of the city were found only in the 16th century.

Etna, 1669

It is the Etna volcano that is currently the highest of active volcanoes throughout Europe. Approximately once every 150 years, this volcano destroyed a settlement near it. However, the high activity of the volcano does not stop the Sicilians and every time they return to life near the volcano.

In 1669, Mount Etna erupted for six months. As a result, the outlines of the island became unrecognizable. For example, Ursino Castle was located right on the seashore before the eruption began. After the eruption, the castle was 2.5 kilometers from the coast! There were no fatalities in that eruption, but the volcano destroyed more than 25,000 homes.

Tambora, 1815

The eruption of 1815 made people suffer all over the world. The fact is that the volcano Tabora exploded during the eruption, throwing out about 2 million tons of debris. The island of Sumbawa, on which the volcano was located, was completely sunk. At that time, more than 10 thousand people became victims, but this was not the end.

Due to a powerful explosion, a tsunami was formed, the height of which reached 9 meters. The surrounding islands were completely erased, and the inhabitants died. But that was not the end. A powerful explosion provoked the debris to fall to a height of 40 kilometers, where they turned into dust, which flew from the atmosphere into the stratosphere without any problems. This dust began to swirl around the planet and reflect the rays of the sun. As a result, all the people of the planet suffered, because lack of sun affected the amount of food grown, people's health, etc. Some historians consider the eruption of the Tambor volcano to be the most destructive in the history of mankind.

Mont Pele, 1902

In 1902, on the morning of May 8, 4 powerful explosions of the Mont Pele volcano were heard. A huge amount of lava rushed abruptly to the nearest port on the island of Martinique. In addition, burning ash covered the settlement. As a result, more than 36,000 people died. Only 2 people were able to survive.

Ruiz, 1985

Until 85, the Ruiz volcano was considered inactive for a long time. However, on November 13, 1985, Colombians heard several violent explosions. The most powerful explosion was estimated by experts at 10 megatons. The column of dust and ash rose 9 kilometers up.

The city of Armero suffered the greatest damage from the Ruiz volcano. In just 10 minutes, the city was completely destroyed. The number of victims was over 20,000. In addition, oil pipelines, roads and power lines were damaged. Due to the eruption, the snow on the tops of the mountains began to melt and this led to the overflow of rivers.



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