Wild describes some of the major eruptions that have changed
the course of history.
Vesuvius, Tambora or Santorini and images immediately come to
mind of volcanic events of interest that happened sometime in
history in some far-away place. While some active volcanoes
are in remote areas, others like Sicily's Mt. Etna have become
major tourist attractions. Mt. Etna puts on a spectacular display
shooting red-hot lava 1,000 feet into the sky, and citizens
and tourists approach to within a few thousand feet of the crater
to take pictures and sightsee. No one knows when or if a massive
eruption will come, but if a large eruption occurs much of Sicily
and all of southern Italy and Greece would be affected. This
is not without precedent in the Mediterranean Region. Unanticipated
eruptions have taken an enormous toll in lives and property
and upon the environment throughout history.
as beautiful as they are destructive, in modern times
some volcanoes have become tourist spots.
shown in this July 2001 satellite photograph, Sicily's
Mt. Etna is still very much an active volcano.
volcanic craters of the island of Santorini hint at
the destructiveness of the largest volcanic eruption
in the last 10,000 years.
Santorini is a small volcanic island in the Aegean Sea off the
coast of Greece that erupted in 1650bc. It is considered to
be the largest volcanic eruption in the last 10,000 years. When
the magma chamber under the island was emptied, it collapsed,
leaving an underwater caldera 400 feet deep and four miles in
circumference. The tidal wave that followed the eruption and
collapse of the magma chamber was over 100 feet high and swept
the Mediterranean crescent clean of villages, killing millions.
There are no historic accounts of this devastating eruption,
except, possibly, the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah
being overcome with a deluge of hot ashes and showers of rock.
have surmised that the Minoan civilization on the nearby island
of Crete, considered to be the most culturally advanced society
of that time, owes its sudden and complete disappearance to
the eruption of Santorini. Entire villages have been excavated
from beneath 100 feet of pumice and ash deposited on Santorini
and nearby islands.
In 167bc, a small cone appeared in the Santorini caldera that
has grown to be the Kameni Islands. This relatively new but
small volcano has erupted 11 times since its creation, most
recently in 1950 on the northern island of Nea Kameni. Geologists
believe that Santorini itself developed in the caldera of an
earlier volcano, and that eventually the Kameni volcano will
become a threat to European and Mediterranean populations.
the afternoon of 24 August 79ad, Mount Vesuvius shot a stream
of ash miles into the air. The next morning, Vesuvius erupted,
killing the citizens of the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Pompeii was a holiday resort and thousands had flocked there
to escape the heat of a Roman summer. The streets were busy
that August evening, with many holiday visitors busy shopping
for Pompeii's famous pottery, while others relaxed over a glass
of wine and enjoyed the evening breeze and the passing parade
outdoor restaurants. Others were in the theater enjoying the
lively performances that were a feature of this vacation resort.
had gone to the opulent bathhouses to be cleansed and relaxed
after a busy day around town and still others had resorted to
their beds to refresh themselves for the new day that never
came for them. There were no eyewitness accounts, but it is
recorded that a 750 degrees F cloud of hot gases swept down
from Vesuvius and enveloped the town killing almost all the
residents and holiday visitors instantly from thermal shock.
While lava poured into Pompeii, clouds of ash rained down on
Herculaneum burying everything including the buildings of the
town under 75 feet of volcanic ash. Such was the devastation
and loss that the government in Rome decided to leave the towns
and the victims buried under the lava and ash of Mount Vesuvius.
later, historians and archeologists have excavated Pompeii and
affirmed the swiftness with which this event snuffed out lives.
Bodies were found huddled in buildings, in their beds, on the
streets and in every position that one might expect to see a
blissful population that was overwhelmed in an instant. The
ruins of Herculaneum were not discovered until the 1700s, when
excavations were begun in 75 feet of solidified volcanic ash.
The ongoing excavation has revealed that Herculaneum was populated
by wealthy Romans who lived in their villas with lavish gardens
and beach-front property on the Bay of Naples. Many bodies were
excavated on the beach, where women were found wearing exotic
jewelry with a ring on every finger and exquisitely carved bracelets.
The presence of over 300 bodies on the beach suggests that they
were trying to escape by water but the surge of gas from Vesuvius
ended their lives instantly.
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD destroyed the nearby
towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Year Without a Summer
The eruption of Indonesia's Mount Tambora on 5 April 1815 was
one of the largest eruptions in history. Tambora spewed sulphur-rich
gases that rose to a height of 28 miles and created a giant
sun filter in the northern hemisphere that caused the spring
and summer of 1816 to be extremely cold across Europe and North
America. Snowfalls and frost occurred in June, July and August
and all but the hardiest grains were destroyed. Destruction
of the corn crop caused farmers to slaughter their livestock.
Soup kitchens were opened to feed the hungry. Sea ice formed
in the Atlantic shipping lanes and glaciers advanced down mountain
slopes to exceptionally low levels. Hundreds of thousands died
of starvation as crops failed, touching off a wave of migration
to the American South and Midwest. Farmers repeatedly tried
to get a crop in the ground, but each time a killer frost withered
the tender roots. Corn and grain prices shot up to $5 and $10
per bushel and oats that had been 12 cents a bushel rose to
92 cents. Riots erupted in Britain and France as starving citizens
broke into grain warehouses and left them empty. Violence was
even worse in Switzerland where the government declared a national
emergency and grain purchases from Russia were intercepted at
the border and confiscated by hungry citizens.
In Indonesia itself, 83,000 died as a direct result of the eruption,
most from the hot gases and many from being bombed by hot lava
being ejected for miles around Mount Tambora. It has been estimated
that 93 cubic miles of ash were ejected, and it took five years
before the green shoots of vegetation began to poke through
the land covered with volcanic ash to a distance of 250 miles
1883 eruption of Krakatoa was 10,000 times more powerful
than the atomic blast at Hiroshima.
On 26 August 1883, two-thirds of the island of Krakatau in Indonesia
were blasted 50,000 feet into the atmosphere. Eleven cubic miles
of the island vanished and were pulverized by the eruption into
fine ash and rock particles that blocked out the sun for two
days to a distance of 250 miles from the volcano. So much material
was ejected from Krakatoa that world weather was affected for
five years and the filter effect of the atmospheric dust on
the sun's rays caused the earth to cool. Spectacular sunsets
lasted for several years and in the first year the sun was often
changed to blue or green as vast clouds of sulphuric ash drifted
around the world. The blast was heard 3,000 miles away. The
tidal wave created by the explosion and the sea rushing to fill
the nine-mile-wide caldera rushed outward at a speed of 150
miles an hour and a height of 120 feet. The shores of the islands
in Indonesia were swept clean of thousands of villages and it
is estimated that 36,400 people lost their lives. Coral blocks
weighing as much as 600 tons were swept miles inland. The tidal
wave traveled 3,600 nautical miles to Aden in 12 hours. Huge
rafts of pumice, thick enough to support many passengers, floated
across the Indian Ocean in 10 months and were still afloat two
years after the eruption.
Krakatoa's massive eruption was assigned a Volcanic Explosivity
Index (VEI) of six, which rates as colossal. An explosion of
this magnitude only occurs on Earth every few hundred years.
The total energy released by the Krakatoa explosions was 200
megatons, 10,000 times more powerful than the atomic explosion
In view of the potential for massive loss of life and economic
destruction posed by a major eruption, the Brussels-based European
Science Foundation has created a special volcano watching commission.
Staffed by scientists, geologists and vulcanolagists, the commission
is making a special study of volcanoes in Europe that could
cause fatalities numbering in the tens of millions as well as
economic devastation that could wipe out entire countries. Of
particular concern are two of the most active volcanoes in the
world, Mt. Etna and Stromboli, both in Sicily and positioned
to affect most of Europe, particularly Italy and Greece. Both
of these volcanoes have become tourist attractions and tours
take visitors right to the rim of the volcanoes' craters to
experience and photograph the lava eruptions that send hundreds
of tons of red-hot lava over 1,000 feet into the air.
article originally appeared in our October/November