We very often talk about ‘The Asteroid’ that may have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, ‘The Flood’ that ended civilizations, but we rarely talk about the volcanoes. Volcanoes have also largely contributed to altering human history.
Here are a few Volcanoes:
1) Mount Vesuvius:
Mt. Vesuvius, the active volcano that looms over the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, has erupted well over 30 times that we know of.
And yet its most famous eruption took place all the way back in A.D. 79, when a multiday eruption of lava and ash covered the cities of Pompeii and Stabiae in ash.
2) Krakatoa
In 1883, the volcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupted with 13,000 times the power of an atomic bomb.
The sound of the spewing smoke and rock was reportedly heard thousands of miles away, as far as islands off the eastern coast of Africa. The last eruption was 4 years back in 2014.
Krakatoa itself then slumped into the boiling depths of the ocean, but a new island at the site was spotted in 1927, and it still occasionally spits lava into the sky.
3) Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens was getting ready to burst for nearly two months before it exploded, not to mention the more than 120 years it lay dormant.
While the eruption was anticipated, the manner in which it occurred was completely unprecedented.
4) Mount Tambora
The Volcanic Explosivity Index goes up to 8. On that scale, the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora rates a very destructive 7.
The explosion took place on the island of Sumbawa and plunged the region into darkness, but its effects were anything but isolated.
The largest volcanic eruption in recorded history changed the world’s climate so much (even crops in Europe and North America failed) that 1816 became known as “the year without a summer.”
5) Mauna Loa
It’s fitting that the state created out of a chain of volcanic islands would be home to the world’s largest volcano.
Mauna Loa is located on the Big Island of Hawaii and in addition to being the largest, with a summit nearly 13,700 feet high, it is also one of the world’s most active.
Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times, most recently in 1984. At 60 miles long and 30 miles wide, Mauna Loa, the name of which fittingly means “Long Mountain” in Hawaiian.
Source
Know more about volcanoes and how they work in our latest issue of Engage Learning Magazine
Also, read our previous blog about Amazing Animal Engineers