Timeline Volcanoes
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Volcano World Web page: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.11)
74000BC The
major Toba volcanic eruption occurred in Sumatra about this time. It
was later be-lieved that this eruption caused a major temperature drop
and reduction in the human popula-tion. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA
seemed to corroborate a significant reduction in human population
around this time.
(DC, 7/1/00)(DC, 9/2/02)
5000BC Mt. Mazama in what is now Oregon blew up about
this time and left what is now called Crater Lake.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 10/26/06, p.B8)
1626BC Jul, There was a volcanic eruption in the
Aegean. The date was counted from tree rings and climactic anoma that
create frost rings. [see 1645, 1500, 1470, 1450]
(SFEC, 1/31/99, BR p.9)
1500 The explosion of Thira (Thera
or Santorini) about this time released energy equal to 200,000 H-bombs.
[see 1645BCE and 1470BCE]
(NH, 5/96, p.3)
1470BC The volcano Thera, or Santorini, erupted in
the Mediterranean. It may correspond to the ninth plague of Egypt
recorded in Exodus as the “darkness over Egypt.” [see 1645BC and 1500BC
for alternate dates]
(NOHY, 3/90, p.129)
1450BC The eruption of the volcano on Santorini
Island about this time triggered earthquakes and tidal waves that may
have destroyed most of the Minoan cities and palaces. In 1939 Spyri-don
Marinatos authored “The Volcanic Destruction of Minoan Crete.”
[see 1470BC]
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T11)(AM, 7/00, p.41)
79CE Aug 24, Pliny the Elder,
Roman naturalist, witnessed the eruption of long-dormant Mount Vesuvius
and was overcome by the fumes as he tried to rescue refugees. The
eruption buried the Roman cities of Pompeii, Stabiae, Herculaneum and
other, smaller settlements in 13 feet of volcanic ash and pumice. An
estimated 20,000 people died. The event was described by Pliny the
Younger, the elder’s nephew, in a letter to Tacitus.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(DD-EVTT, p.70)(AP, 8/24/97)(WUD,
1994, p.1106)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A2)(HNQ, 6/16/98)
79CE Aug 25, Gaius Plinius
Secundus, [Plinius Maior], Roman admiral, writer, died in the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius. [see Aug 24]
(MC, 8/25/02)
535 Feb, There is evidence that
the Krakatoa volcano had a major eruption about this time. In 1869
Rangawarsita, a Javanese royal courtier, compiled the Books of
Kings, which men-tioned an event from the middle of the first
millennium that sounded like a major eruption.
(WSJ, 5/15/00, p.A46)(Disc., 7/4/03)
1610 Leon, Nicaragua, was buried
by the Mombotombo volcano.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F5)
1631 Dec 16, In Italy Mount
Vesuvius erupted and destroyed 6 villages. Some 3.5-4,000 peo-ple were
killed.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T8)(MC, 12/16/01)
1669 Mar 11, Mount Etna in Sicily
erupted killing 15,000. [see Mar 25]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1669 Mar 25, Mount Etna, Sicily,
erupted and destroyed Nicolosi, killing 20,000. [see Mar 11]
(MC, 3/25/02)
1693 Jan 11, Sicily’s Mt. Etna
erupted.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1772 Aug 11, An explosive eruption
blew 4,000 feet off Papandayan, Java, and 3,000 people were killed.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1783 Jun 8, In Iceland the
Lakagicar volcano began erupting. Over the next 6 months it built a
lava dam 40 miles long and 540 feet high in a month. The Laki volcano
wiped out 75% of the crops which led to a severe famine that killed
some 10,000 people, 20% of the population. This was described by
Haraldur Sigurdson in an article titled Volcanic Pollution and Climate:
Eos 63, Aug. 10, 1982.
(NH, 9/97, p.38)(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A18)(AM, 7/00,
p.40)(ON, 2/04, p.9)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.132)
1783 Jun 8-1784 Feb, A series of
10 eruptions from the Laki Craters on Iceland changed at-mospheric
conditions in most of the Northern Hemisphere. This also generated a
cascade of events that led to record low levels of water in the Nile
River and brought famine to the region. By 1785 a sixth of Egypt’s
population had either perished or fled.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9xemq)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.134)
1783 Mount Asama, one of Japan's
largest and most active volcanoes, had a major eruption.
(AP, 9/15/04)
1783-1786 Japan suffered one of its worst famines in
history when exceptional cold destroyed the rice harvest. As many as 1
million people died. Most of the impact for this was due to the
erup-tions of the Laki volcano in Iceland beginning in June, 1783.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.134)
1793 Apr 1, The volcano
Unsen on Japan erupted killing about 53,000.
(OTD)
1815 Apr 5, Mount Tambora on
Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, in the Java Sea began erupting. [see Apr 10]
(NOHY, 3/90,
p.41)(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9071099)
1815 Apr 10, A third of the 13,000
foot Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, was blasted into the
air. Some 50,000 islanders were killed and the whole planet was
shrouded in a debris of sulfuric droplets. In 2006 scientist reported
finding traces of Tambora society.
(www.sullivan-county.com/immigration/e3.htm)(AP,
2/28/06)
1816 Jun 6, There was a 10"
snowfall in New England in this "year without a summer". The
oceanographer Henry Stommel and his wife Elizabeth described this year
in their (1983) book “Volcano Weather: The Story of 1816, The year
Without a Summer.” The 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora lofted a cloud of
ash that turned this summer into a virtual winter with snow in Europe
and New England.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.130)(SFC, 5/19/97, p.D1)
1822 Oct 8, The Galunggung volcano
on Java sent boiling sludge into valley. The eruption left 4,011 dead.
The long-inactive volcano erupted Apr 4 and blew its top on Apr 12. The
Oct 8 and Oct 12 eruptions left 4,011 dead.
(www.emergency-management.net/volcanic.htm)
1834 Aug 18, Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1835 Jan, Consiguina volcano in
Nicaragua erupted and threw ash as far away as Mexico and Jamaica.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F5)
1851 Mt. Pelee volcano on the
French Island of Martinique erupted. It left the city of St. Pierre
unscathed.
(NH, 10/02, p.76)
1867 Mar 11, Great Mauna Loa
volcano eruption in Hawaii.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1868 Nov 28, Mt. Etna in Sicily
erupted violently.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1872 Apr 24, Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1883 Aug 26, The island volcano
Krakatoa in Indonesia began erupting with increasingly large explosions
and killed some 36,000 people, both on the island itself and from the
resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterated 163 villages on the
shores of nearby Java and Sumatra. A book by Ian Thornton: "Krakatau:
The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem" was published in
1996. [see Aug 27] The history of hundreds of volcanoes is at a Volcano
World Web page: (www.volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html).
(AP, 8/26/97)(Nat. Hist, 3/96, p.6)(HN, 8/26/02)
1883 Aug 27, The island volcano
Krakatoa erupted; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait
claimed some 36,417 lives in Java and Sumatra. In 2003 Simon Winchester
au-thored Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: Aug 27, 1883.” [see Aug
26]
(AP, 8/27/97)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M2)
1883 Aug 29, Seismic sea waves,
created by Krakatoa eruption, created a rise in the English Channel 32
hrs after explosion.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1902 May 8, Mt. Pelee volcano, on
the French Island of Martinique in the east W. Indies, blew its top and
wiped out the town of St. Pierre. A pyroclastic flow killed 29-40
thousand people. In 1972 Jacques Petitjean Roget published a detailed
report on the event. In 2002 Alwyn Scarth authored “La Catastrophe.”
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A4)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(NH, 10/02,
p.76)
1902 May, In Nicaragua the
Momotombo volcano erupted.
(ON, 1/00, p.2)
1902 The Soufrire volcano erupted
on St. Vincent and 1,680 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)
1919 May 1, In Indonesia Mount
Kelud erupted. A powerful explosion that could be heard hundreds of
miles away destroyed dozens of villages and killed at least 5,160 when
a boiling crater lake broke through the crater wall killing people in
104 small villages.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 11/3/07)
1919 May 20, Volcano Keluit on
Java erupted killing 550. [see May 1]
(MC, 5/20/02)
1930 Sep 11, The Stromboli volcano
in Sicily threw 2-ton basaltic rocks 2 miles.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1943 A volcano erupted near
Sobetsucho, Japan, and formed a mountain, that was named Showa Shinzan.
(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.A1)
1943 Parcutin Volcano in central
Mexico began a 9-year eruption.
(AM, 3/04, p.50)
1944 Jan 6, In Italy lava began
flowing from the conelet of Mount Vesuvius. Lava flows con-tinued into
March with several explosions thru the end of March.
(http://vulcan.fis.uniroma3.it/vesuvio/1944eng.html)
1956 Mar 20, Mount Bezymianny on
Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR, exploded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 Nicaragua’s Concepcion
volcano erupted.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F4)
1962 Jan 10, Eruptions on Mount
Huascaran in Peru destroyed 7 villages and killed 3,500.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1968 Oct 23, In Nicaragua the
Cerro Negro volcano began erupting again and continued to Dec 10. It
had first appeared in 1850.
(DD-EVTT,
Illustr.#9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Negro)
1971 Apr 5, In Sicily, Italy,
Mount Etna began a series of eruptions.
(http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/ETNA_erupt2.html)
1973 Jan 23, Helgafell, an island
of Heimaey, Iceland, erupted for the 1st time in 7,000 yrs.
(www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1702-01=&volpage=var)
1976 Jul 8, A volcano erupted on
Guadeloupe and frightened the capital, Basse-Terre. A phreatic eruption
of the Soufriere volcano cracked open the summit dome
(www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~beaudu/soufriere/smithsonian76.html#sean_0109)
1978 Oct 24, Mount Usu, 475 miles
north of Tokyo, erupted. Mud flows killed 2 people and 196 homes were
destroyed.
(SFC, 3/30/00,
p.C3)(http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110004665764/en/)
1980 Mar 27, Mount St. Helens,
dormant for 123 years, erupted with ash and steam. A crater formed at
the summit and the north flank began to bulge.
(SFEC, 8/16/98,
p.A15)(http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/fs036-00/)
1980 May 18, At 8:32 a.m. Mount
Saint Helens, in Washington, erupted. It burst 3 times in 24 hours
after rumbling for two months and left 57 people dead or missing. The
mountain lost over 1,300 feet of elevation and gained a two-mile-long
and one mile-wide crater.
(AAM, 3/96, p.84)(AP, 5/18/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98,
p.A15)(HN, 5/18/02)
1980 May 25, Mount St. Helens
erupted again and deposited ash over western Washington and Oregon.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A15)
1980 Jun 12, A 3rd major eruption
occurred at Mount St. Helens. A lava dome began to form in the crater.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A15)
1980 Jun 14, A 4th eruption
blasted through the lava dome at Mount St. Helens.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A15)
1980 Aug 7, A 5th major eruption
occurred at Mount St. Helens. [see May 18]
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A15)
1980 Oct 17, Mt. St. Helens
erupted 3 times in 24 hours, in Washington. The eruptions had begun May
18.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1980 Oct 18, A 6th major eruption
occurred at Mount St. Helens and a new lava dome emerged that grew to
130 feet by the next day.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A15)
1983 Jan 3, In Hawaii the Pu’u O’o
vent of the Kilauea volcano lit up the skies for the first time and
began a state of almost constant eruption.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.T6)
1990 Feb 10, In Indonesia Mount
Kelud erupted. Some 33 post eruption lahars took place from Feb
15-mar28 and more than 30 people were killed with hundreds injured.
(AP,
11/3/07)(www.springerlink.com/content/x7d7qvad0ct3c9bf/)
1991 Jun 3, Mount Unzendake in
southern Japan erupted and left 43 people dead and nearly 2,300
homeless. The dead included volcano experts Maurice and Katia Krafft.
(SFC, 3/31/00, p.A17)(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)(AP,
6/3/01)(WSJ, 4/18/02, p.D7)
1991 Jun 12, The Mount Pinatubo
volcano in the Philippines began erupting. [see Jun 15]
(AP, 6/12/01)
1991 Jun 15, Mount Pinatubo (4,750
feet high) erupted. Due to early warning 56,000 people were evacuated
and only 450 people died. The eruption forced the closure of Clark Air
Force Base in Angeles City and displaced hundreds of families of the
Aeta tribe. [see June 1,12]
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.27)(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F4)
1991 Hudson volcano erupted in
Chile’s Aisen province and launched a cubic mile of ash.
(SFCM, 10/3/04, p.51)
1996 May 18, During the week a
series of eruption from the Montserrat volcano in the Soufri-ere Hills
sent a plume of ash and rock soaring 3,000 feet..
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-9)
1996 Jun 17, In New Zealand Mount
Ruapehu erupted.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A6)
1996 Aug 10, In the Philippines
Mount Canlaon erupted and killed 3 climbers. The mountain is one of 21
active volcanoes in the Philippines.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.C1)
1997 Aug 11, In Hawaii lava from
Kilauea Volcano began to flow over the walls of a 700-year-old temple
believed to have been used for human sacrifice.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A3)
1998 May 23, From Guatemala it was
reported that the Pacaya volcano had erupted during the week and
covered Guatemala City with a half-inch of grit.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A5)
1998 Jul 1, In Sicily Mt. Etna
erupted for 30 minutes.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A7)
2002 Jan 17, The volcano Mount
Nyiragongo erupted near Goma, Congo (DRC), and rivers of lava destroyed
14 villages. Goma was devastated and some 400,000 people fled their
homes. At least 50 people were killed and many sought refuge in Rwanda.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
1/20/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 10-11, A 2,100 foot
stretch of lava flowed down from Volcano del Fuego near Anti-gua.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A26)
2002 Jun 22, The official
inauguration of the $89 million, Auvergne region European Volcanic Park
in was scheduled. It included a building complex designed by Hans
Hollein of Austria.
(WSJ, 4/18/02, p.D7)
2002 Sep, Mount Pago spewed
silicone ash and a serious eruption was expected. Parts of New Britain
Island were made uninhabitable.
(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A18)
2002 Oct 27, In Sicily Mount Etna
began spewing thick clouds of ash and magma.
(AP, 10/28/02)
2004 Jun 10, In Indonesia Mount
Awu on Sangihe Island erupted. Nearly 12,000 people living around the
mountain had been evacuated to a nearby town.
(AP, 6/10/04)
2004 Oct 1, Mount St. Helens
quieted down after spewing a plume of steam and ash, but only briefly.
Within hours of the eruption, seismic readings suggested pressure was
building again inside the volcano, which had been dormant for 18 years.
(AP, 10/2/04)
2006 May 15, Indonesia’s Mount
Merapi erupted violently, sending searing gas clouds and burning rocks
down its scorched flanks and threatening villagers who refused to leave
because of ancient mystical beliefs.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2008 Jan 2, In southern Chile
hundreds of people fled their homes overnight as the Llaima volcano
erupted, rocking the area with explosions and spewing lava and ash.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Feb 6, Ecuador's Tungurahua
volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air, as officials ordered
the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its slopes.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Apr 15, Colombia's Nevado del
Huila volcano erupted in a shower of hot ash, prompting thousands of
people to leave their homes.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 16, Mount Egon volcano on
Flores island in eastern Indonesia spewed ash and smoke 2 1/2 miles
into the sky, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of nearby villagers.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 May 2, In southern Chile
authorities evacuated hundreds of people from villages after the
snowcapped Chaiten volcano, considered dormant for thousands of years,
erupted.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 Nov 20, In southwestern
Colombia the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted and loosed avalanches of
mud and ash that injured nine, destroyed bridges and trapped people in
their towns. At least 10 people died in landslides triggered by the
eruption.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/29/08, p.B6)
2009 Feb 2, A volcano near Tokyo
erupted, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital
with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left
others puz-zled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Mar 23, Alaska's Mount
Redoubt volcano erupted five times overnight, sending an ash plume more
than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20
years.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 May 29, Indonesian government
marine geologist Yusuf Surachman said that a massive underwater
mountain discovered off the island of Sumatra could be a volcano with
potentially catastrophic power. It was discovered earlier this month
about 330 kilometers (205 miles) west of Bengkulu city during research
to map the seabed's seismic faultlines.
(AFP, 5/30/09)
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