Volcano Project Sam Begun

Volcano 11: Mount Mayon

Active Stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

Philippians plate

At 8am on February 1, 1814, began the most deadly recorded eruption of Mt Mayon, in which more than 1,200 people were killed.After a number of seismic shocks, a thick column of stones, sand and ash shot high into the air. The sides of the mountain were hidden by veils of ash, smoke and vapour. A fiery stream of lava dashed down the side of the mountain and the sky darkened. Then stones began falling to earth killing many people. Even houses offered no protection as the stones were red hot and set buildings on fire.

One particularly sad incident occurred when the priest of the church in Cagsawa church ordered the bells to be rung to warn the local people of the eruption. Hundreds of people took refuge in the church, but unfortunately the lava stream and accompanying ash surrounded and covered the church, killing about 200 people inside.

Volcano 1: Mount Tambora

Active stratovolcano

Mafic magma

eurasian plate

It erupted violently in April 1815, when it lost much of its top. The blast, pyroclastic flow, and moderate tsunamis that followed caused the deaths of at least 10,000 islanders and destroyed the homes of 35,000 more. Some 80,000 people in the region eventually died from starvation and disease related to the event.

Volcano 12: Avachinsky

Active Stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

North American Plate
Avachinsky, a Stratovolcano volcano located in Russia, had an eruption on August 9, 1827. Avachinsky stands 2,741 m tall. It erupted with a Moderate volcanic explosivity index force.

Volcano 7: Cosigüina

Dormant Stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

Caribbean plate
The most violent eruption in recent Nicaraguan history occurred January 22, 1835, at the Cosigüina Volcano. A huge part of the crater was blown away and some huge pieces of rock formed islands in the Gulf of Fonseca. Ash rained down in a huge area, reaching as far as Mexico City, 1400 kilometers away. The ash cloud blocked sunlight within a radius of 150 kilometers. After this short but brutal eruption there were only a couple other eruptions before the volcano became dormant in 1859. In 1938 a crater lake developed in the hole left after the eruption.

Volcano 8: Shiveluch

Active stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

North American plate
Catastrophic eruptions took place in 1854 and 1956, when a large part of the lava dome collapsed and created a devastating debris avalanche.

Volcano 9: Askja

Dormant stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

Eurasian plate

Askja was virtually unknown until the tremendous eruption which started on March 29, 1875. Especially in the eastern fjords of Iceland, the ashfall was heavy enough to poison the land and kill livestock. Ash, or tephra from this eruption was wind-blown to Norway and Sweden. The eruption triggered a substantial wave of emigration from Iceland. Another less well-known eruption occurred in the early Holocene, ca 11,000 years ago. Tephra from this eruption has been found in southeast Sweden, Northern Ireland and north Norway. The last eruption of the Askja was in 1961.

Volcano 16: Cotopaxi

Active Stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

South American Plate
Pyroclastic flows descended all sides of the volcano in 1877, and lahars traveled more than 100 km into the Pacific Ocean and western Amazon basin.

Volcano 6: Mount Galunggung

Dormant Stratovolcano

Mafic Magma

Eurasian plate

In the month of October of 1882, a casualty occurred. In Indonesia the volcano Mt. Galunggung erupted. This eruption caused 4,011 deaths and 114 destroyed villages. It was also categorized as a VEI=5 volcanic eruption.

Volcano 2: Krakatoa

Active Caldera

felsic lava

Eurasian plate
Its explosive eruption in 1883 was one of the most catastrophic in history. Krakatoa lies along the convergence of the Indian-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates, a zone of high volcanic and seismic activity. Sometime within the past million years, the volcano built a cone-shaped mountain composed of flows of volcanic rock alternating with layers of cinder and ash.

Volcano 3: Mount Tarawera

Active Caldera

Felsic Lava

Australian-indian plate

On 10 June, early in the morning, people were wakened by violent shaking of the ground. Outside, the sky was lit up by lightning flashes.

Eyewitnesses later reported that Mount Tarawera had split open, and that a huge column of fire could be seen shooting up into the air and forming a black cloud of smoke and ash. Molten rocks were flung out of the volcano, landing in the lake with a hiss.

One legend surrounding the 1886 eruption is that of the phantom canoe. Eleven days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman, a local Maori man from the Te Arawa iwi. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. It is possible that the rise and fall of the lake level caused by pre eruption fissures had freed a burial waka (canoe) from its resting place. Traditionally dead chiefs were tied in an upright position.A number of letters have been published from the tourists who experienced the event.