Timeline
Volcanoes
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201.4Mil BC A mass extinction occurred about this time. In 1999 it was reported that a titanic volcanic eruption occurred about this time and split an ancient super-continent. This process began the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Half of all marine species died in a few million years. [see 252 and 225 mil]
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.A3)(Econ, 11/8/03, p.78)(Econ, 3/27/10, p.88)
1Mil BC Ascension Island, the top of a volcano, broke through the surface of the Atlantic Ocean about this time. Since then the island has grown to about 100 square km.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.159)
74000BC The major Toba volcanic eruption occurred in Sumatra about this time. It was later believed that this eruption caused a major temperature drop and reduction in the human population. 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 Spyridon 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 mentioned 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)
940 Mount Paektu, a volcano straddling the border between North Korea and China, erupted about this time and covered a swath of North-East Asia in ashes. The millennium eruption is believed to have occurred between 930 and 940 AD.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.48)(AP, 9/3/14)
1362 In Iceland the Oraefajokull volcano erupted. This eruption was later believed to have eclipsed the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)
1600 Feb 19, Arequipa, Peru, was destroyed as the Huaynaputina volcano exploded catastrophically, in the largest volcanic explosion in South America in historic times. The eruption continued with associated earthquakes into March and devastated the socioeconomic fabric of southern Peru and neighboring Chile and Bolivia. The explosion had effects on climate around the Northern Hemisphere, where 1601 was the coldest year in six centuries, leading to a famine in Russia.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaynaputina)
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 people were killed.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T8)(MC, 12/16/01)
1669 Mar 11, Mount Etna in Sicily began erupting. Lava flows that destroyed at least 10 villages on its southern flank before reaching the city walls of the town of Catania five weeks later, on 15 April. Contemporaneous accounts written both in Italian and English mention no deaths related to this eruption (but give very precise figures of the number of buildings destroyed, the area of cultivated land lost, and the economic damage).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna)
1707 Japan’s Mount Fuji erupted. It produced only 2% as much ash as the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A12)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.23)
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, reducing the population to some 40,000 people. This was described by Haraldur Sigurdson in an article titled Volcanic Pollution and Climate: Eos 63, Aug. 10, 1982. The Laki eruption sent poisonous gases across Europe. In 2014 Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe authored “Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki: the Volcano that Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark."
(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)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.85)(Econ, 7/19/14,p.71)
1783 Jun 8-1784 Feb, A series of 10 eruptions from the Laki Craters on Iceland changed atmospheric 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 eruptions 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)
1809 A large volcanic eruption took place, but the exact location was unknown. Evidence was later found in ice cores of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.22)
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. Tsunamis and starvation that followed killed an estimated 60-120 thousand people.
(www.sullivan-county.com/immigration/e3.htm)(AP, 2/28/06)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.21)
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)
1816-1818 Bad weather around the world during this period was a result of the 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.22)
1821-1823 In Iceland the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted over this period.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)
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 authored 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)
1886 Jun 10, Mount Tarawera erupted at Rotorua on the North Island. 155 people were killed and several Maori and European settlements, including Te Wairoa, were destroyed.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T5)(SSFC, 10/28/12, p.M6)
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)
1912 Jun 6, In Alaska the Novarupta volcano began erupting 6 miles from Mount Katmai. When the eruption stopped on June 9th, the ash cloud had spread across southern Alaska. This was later recognized as the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Crops withered across Canada and the US that summer under skies shrouded with volcanic ash.
(http://geology.com/novarupta/)(Hem, 4/96, p.78)
1913 Mexico’s active Volcan de Fuego, part of the Colima volcano complex, experienced a major eruption. As of 2012 it has erupted more than 40 times since 1576. Only a fraction of the volcano's surface area is in the state of Colima; the majority of its surface area lies over the border in the neighboring state of Jalisco.
(SSFC, 8/19/12, p.P3)(www.gomanzanillo.com/old_articles/volcano/)
1914 Jun, Mt. Lassen in northern California began erupting and continued to spew volcanic debris through 1921.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.T5)(SSFC, 6/15/14, DB p.46)
1915 May 22, At Mt. Lassen in northern California a searing cloud of hot gas and vaporized lava created the Devastated Area, a mile wide and 5 miles long.
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T8)
1915 Jun 3, In northern California the Mount Lassen volcano erupted.
(SSFC, 5/31/15, DB p.42)
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)
1930 Nov 21, In Indonesia lava began flowing as the Mount Merapi volcano erupted. 13 villages were destroyed and some 1369 people were killed by pyroclastic flows.
(http://dogeatdogma.com/merapi.htm)
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 continued 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)
1972 Aug 26, In southern Chile the Calbuco volcano erupted for four hours. It is considered one of the top three most potentially dangerous among Chile's 90 active volcanos.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calbuco_%28volcano%29)(AP, 4/23/15)
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 Aug, Chile’s Hudson Volcano erupted in Aisen province. It launched a cubic mile of ash and piled ash 18 inches (45 cm) high killing an estimated 1.5 million sheep on the Argentine side of the Andean mountain chain.
(SFCM, 10/3/04, p.51)(AP, 10/28/11)
1991 Mount Lokon, one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, erupted. It killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.
(AP, 10/26/11) (AP, 10/26/11)
1994 Nov 22, In Indonesia the Merapi volcano erupted. Pyroclastic flows and surges killed 43 people.
(http://dogeatdogma.com/merapi.htm)(Reuters, 10/26/10)
1996 May, In Montserrat a series of eruption from a volcano in the Soufriere 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 Antigua.
(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 puzzled 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)
2009 Dec 15, The Philippines' most active volcano oozed lava and shot up plumes of ash, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and face the possibility of a bleak Christmas in a shelter. State volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon volcano overnight to two steps below a major eruption.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2010 Mar 21, In southern Iceland a volcano erupted overnight, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate the area and diverting flights after authorities declared a local state of emergency.
(Reuters, 3/21/10)
2010 Apr 12, A British scientific expedition said it has discovered the world's deepest known underwater volcanic vent off the Cayman Islands.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Iceland a volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air, closing a major road and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 15, British airport operator BAA Ltd. said all flights at London's Heathrow Airport have been suspended for the rest of the day, causing travel chaos as ash clouds from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across Europe.
(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, Volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland and left a widening arc of grounded aircraft across Europe, as thousands of planes stayed on the tarmac to avoid the hazardous cloud. Travel chaos engulfed major European cities and the UN warned of possible health risks from falling ash.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 17, A lingering volcanic ash plume forced extended no-fly restrictions over much of Europe, as Icelandic scientists warned that volcanic activity had increased and showed no sign of abating, a portent of more travel chaos to come.
(AP, 4/17/10)
2010 Apr 26, In Guatemala the Santiaguito volcano showered sand and ash over a large western area in an "unusual" and "violent" eruption.
(AFP, 4/27/10)
2010 May 27, Authorities closed Guatemala's international airport after the nearby Pacaya volcano showered as much as 3 inches (8 centimeters) of ash over parts of the city. A television reporter was killed by a shower of burning rocks when he got too close to the volcano, about 15 miles (25 km) south of Guatemala City.
(AP, 5/28/10)(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 28, In Ecuador strong explosions rocked the Tungurahua volcano, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people from nearby villages.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 Aug 6, In Indonesia the Mount Karangetang volcano erupted, sending lava and a searing gas cloud tumbling down its slopes. At least four family members were swept away and feared dead.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 29, In Indonesia the Sinabung volcano on the island of Sumatra erupted for the first time in 400 years, spewing a vast cloud of smoke and ash into the air and sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
2010 Sep 7, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air, dusting villages 15 miles (25 km) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last week from four centuries of dormancy.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Oct 26, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano erupted, prompting terrified villagers to flee and join the thousands already evacuated from its slopes.
(Reuters, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 27, In Indonesia helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed on the remote islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people. Elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 28, Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Indonesia clouds of gray ash rumbled down the slopes of Mount Merapi in its most powerful eruption of a deadly week, prompting soldiers to force reluctant villagers to evacuate amid fears of a larger blast as the death toll reached 36. Storms again prevented aid deliveries to increasingly desperate survivors of a tsunami, including a teenage girl with an open chest wound, that killed 413 people in the Mentawai islands. The number of missing dropped by half to 163 as searchers discovered survivors who had fled to the hills.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 1, Icelandic Meteorological Office geophysicist Gunnar Gudmundsson said that floodwater is coming from the subglacial Grimsvotn volcano, but there are no signs of the underground tremors that would signal an eruption.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 1, Indonesia's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, one of 22 that have been increasingly active, spewed searing clouds of gas and debris for hours in its most powerful eruption in a deadly week that has left 38 dead.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, In Indonesia clouds of hot ash gushed from the Mount Merapi volcano, forcing motorists in cities 20 miles (30 km) away to use their headlights in broad daylight and raising aviation concerns. The death toll climbed to 44.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, In Indonesia searing gas avalanched down the Mount Merapi volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled. About 70 more people were killed raising the death toll to 122.
(AP, 11/5/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 8, In Indonesia frightened residents abandoned their homes in Yogyakarta, a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Mount Merapi, as authorities warned the volcano could erupt again at any time. 153 people have been killed in the last two weeks.
(AP, 11/8/10)(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed clouds of ash high into the sky, forcing some international airlines to again cancel flights and President Barack Obama to cut short his visit.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Indonesia rescuers digging through several feet of ash discovered nine more bodies on the slopes of Mount Merapi, whose explosive eruption a week ago buried whole villages. Confirmation of more deaths trickled in and the toll from a series of blasts at the volcano rose to at least 250.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 17, Indonesia’s disaster agency said that the death toll due to Mount Merapi had risen to 275 and that most of the people were killed by searing gas clouds. Others died during panicked evacuations or from respiratory problems and other illnesses linked to the volcano.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 21, In Indonesia the death toll from the Mount Merapi volcano rose to 304 after more victims succumbed to severe burns and illnesses.
{Indonesia, Volcano}
(SFC, 11/22/10, p.A2)
2011 Jan 13, Italy's Mount Etna has come back to life with a brief eruption that sent lava down its slopes and a cloud of ash into the sky, forcing the overnight closure of a nearby airport. Its last major eruption was in 1992.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Mar 6, Scientists at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano said a new vent has opened, sending lava shooting up to 65 feet high.
(AP, 3/7/11)
2011 May 22, Iceland closed its main international airport and canceled all domestic flights as the Grimsvotn volcano sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles (20 km) high.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 24, About 250 flights to northern Britain were canceled over concerns about the ash cloud spewing from an Icelandic volcano, but British and Irish officials dismissed fears of a mass shutdown of airspace.
(Reuters, 5/24/11)
2011 Jun 4, In southern Chile the long dormant Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, one of the volcanoes in the Caulle Cordon, erupted violently, billowing smoke and ash high into the sky and prompting more than 3,500 people living nearby to evacuate.
(AP, 6/5/11)(Reuters, 6/5/11)(AP, 6/5/11)
2011 Jun 11, Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano continued to sporadically spew a cloud of ash, disrupting airline travel from Brazil and Argentina to as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
(AP, 6/11/11)
2011 Jun 12, Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano continued to emit a cloud of ash, disrupting flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. Authorities were also monitoring the volcano for its potential to cause landslides and avalanches.
(AP, 6/12/11)
2011 Jun 14, In Chile The cloud of ash spewing from an erupting volcano grounded more flights in countries from Uruguay to Australia and threatened to delay next month's start of the Copa America football tournament in Argentina.
(AP, 6/14/11)
2011 Jul 7, Ash from a Chilean volcano grounded flights across much of South America again, disrupting travel for thousands of people just as the continent's premier football tournament got going in Argentina.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 14, In Indonesia Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island burst into life late at night and continued to spew ash and searing gas into the air well into the next morning, prompting more than 4,500 residents to head to safety.
(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Indonesia the Mount Lokon volcano on northern Sulawesi island erupted again and released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 11,400 feet (3,500 meters) into the sky.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Oct 28, Chile's Hudson Volcano released three huge columns of steam and ash that combined in a cloud more than 3 miles (5 km) high.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 7, In the CongoDRC the Nyamulagira volcano (also known as Nyamuragira) began an eruption that happens about every two years. It has been described as Africa’s most active volcano and has erupted over 40 times since 1885.
(AFP, 11/9/11)(http://tinyurl.com/ckekoy5)
2011 Dec 27, In eastern Indonesia mudflows streaming from a volcano killed four villagers and about 1,000 others have fled their homes. Mount Gamalama in the Molucca Islands sprang to life this month with a powerful, non-fatal eruption.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2012 Apr 20, Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano shot a heavy plume of ash into the sky southeast of Mexico City and spewed glowing rock from its crater at dawn.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Aug 6, In New Zealand Mount Tongariro spewed ash and rocks for about 30 minutes after a few weeks of increased seismic activity. It didn't cause any injuries or damage in the sparsely populated central North Island region.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Sep 8, In Nicaragua the San Cristobal volcano spewed out a column of ash and gas 2½ miles high, leading authorities to evacuate about 3,000 people from nine communities around the country's tallest mountain.
(AP, 9/8/12)
2012 Sep 13, In Guatemala the Volcan del Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, erupted in a ferocious lava flow 6 miles from Antigua.
(AP, 9/14/12)
2012 Nov 21, New Zealand’s Mount Tongariro erupted with a brief blast of dark ash, canceling flights but causing no significant damage. Tongariro National Park has three active volcanoes.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2013 May 7, In the Philippines the active Mayon volcano spewed room-sized rocks toward nearly 30 surprised climbers, killing 5 and injuring others who were fetched with rescue helicopters and rope. The 2,460-meter (8,070-foot) mountain, about 340 km (212 miles) southeast of Manila, has erupted about 40 times during the last 400 years.
(AP, 5/7/13)
2013 Jul 4, In Mexico the Popocatepetl volcano registered several tremors after spraying rock and ash over the last 24 hours. At leaqst 40 commercial flights in the Mexico City area were canceled.
(SFC, 7/5/13, p.A3)
2013 Aug 10, In eastern Indonesia gushing hot lava from the erupting Mount Rokatenda volcano killed 6 people sleeping in a beach village on Palue island. Ash and smoke shot up to 2 km into the air.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Oct 26, Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, erupted, sending up a towering plume of ash visible in much of eastern Sicily.
(AP, 10/26/13)
2013 Nov 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano erupted for the third time in as many months on the western island of Sumatra, forcing hundreds of villagers to evacuate.
(Reuters, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 16, Sicily’s Mount Etna began erupting againt.
(SFC, 11/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 17, In Sicily eruptions at Mount Etna volcano died down, allowing the nearby airport of Catania to re-open after a two-day stoppage that disrupted dozens of flights.
(AFP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 29, El Salvador authorities evacuated an area around the Chaparrastique volcano after the peak shot a cloud of gas and ash about 3 miles (5 km) into the air.
(AP, 12/29/13)
2013 Dec 31, In Indonesia more than 19,000 people were displaced by the Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra that has been erupting for months and shot lava into the air nine times overnight.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2014 Feb 1, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano, that has been rumbling for months, unleased a major eruption killing 14 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes.
(AP, 2/1/14)
2014 Feb 1, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano, that has been rumbling for months, unleased a major eruption killing at least 15 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes.
(AP, 2/1/14)(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung shot hot ash and rocks high into the air again, halting a search for any more victims from its Feb 1 eruption.
(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Indonesia a volcanic eruption on Java sent a 17 km (10 mile) ash cloud into the air. More than 56,000 people were forced to flee their homes and four 4 were killed when Mount Kelud erupted.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Apr 4, Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed a 6-mile (10-km) column of ash after a powerful, five-minute explosion that shot pyroclastic material onto its northern and northwestern flanks.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 May 31, Some flights between Australia and southeast Asia and all domestic flights operating out of Darwin airport in the country’s north were canceled after the eruption a day earlier of Sangeang Api in Indonesia’s south produced a large cloud of ash.
(Reuters, 5/31/14)
2014 Aug 22, Scientists in Hawaii began warning the public on the lava flow at Pahoa on the Big Island. The lava was flowing at 2-20 yards per hour and in late October was 510 yards from Pahoa Village Road, which goes through downtown Pahoa.
(SFC, 10/29/14, p.A6)
2014 Aug 23, Iceland said its Bardarbunga volcano has begun erupting under the ice of Europe’s largest glacier, prompting the country to close the airspace over the volcano. Iceland the next day said no eruption took place, but that one remained imminent following increased seismic activity.
(SSFC, 8/24/14, p.A10)(SFC, 8/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 29, In Papua New Guinea Mount Tavurvur erupted early today in Rabaul district on New Britain Island. The eruption forced several communities to evacuate and some international flights were diverted.
(AP, 8/29/14)
2014 Sep 27, In central Japan the Mount Ontake volcano erupted in spectacular fashion, catching mountain climbers by surprise. At least 51 people were killed with 63 injured.
(AP, 9/27/14)(Reuters, 10/1/14)(AP, 10/4/14)
2014 Nov 23, In Cape Verde the volcano Pico do Fogo erupted forcing more than 1,000 people to evacuate from the Cha das Caldeiras region. By mid-December lava flow destroyed two villages and threatened a forest reserve.
(AFP, 12/16/14)
2014 Nov 28, In southern Japan the Mount Aso volcano blasted out chunks of magma in the first such eruption in 22 years, causing flight cancellations and prompting warnings to stay away from its crater.
(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Dec 19, In eastern Indonesia the Mount Gamalama volcano on Ternate island in North Maluku province erupted, spewing towering clouds of hot ash into the air and leaving four hikers injured and one missing when they scrambled to safety.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2015 Mar 12, Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash up to 3,280 feet (1 km) into the air in its most powerful eruption in two decades.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Apr 22, In southern Chile the Calbuco volcano erupted for the first time in more than four decades. LATAM airlines cancelled flights to and from Puerto Montt. One hiker was reported missing.
(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 May 25, In Ecuador's Galapagos islands the Wolf volcano erupted after being dormant for 33 years. The eruption threatened a unique species of pink iguanas.
(Reuters, 5/25/15)
2015 May 29, In Japan Mount Shindake erupted on Kuchinoerabu island spewing out rocks and sending black clouds of ash 9 km (5.6 miles) into the sky.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 Jun 13, In western Indonesia the Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra unleashed a new powerful burst high into the sky sending hot ash far down the mountain's slopes.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 15, In western Indonesia hundreds more villagers were evacuated on Sumatra island as Mount Sinabung volcano spewed at least 28 hot ash avalanches.
(SFC, 6/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 9, In western Mexico the Colima Volcano, also known as the Volcano of Fire, began erupting and continued into the next morning.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 10, In Indonesia Mount Raung in East Java province began spewing ash sparking chaos for holidaymakers. Airports were closed and international airlines canceled flights to tourist hotspot Bali, stranding thousands.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, In western Mexico ash and cinders spewed from the Colima Volcano, prompting authorities to close the airport in the state capital of Colima and order the evacuation of a half dozen hamlets on the flanks of the peak.
(AP, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 16, In Indonesia eruptions at Mount Raung and Mount Gamalama caused closures at three airports, including Juanda International serving Surabaya, the country's 2nd-largest city.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 22, In Indonesia eruptions of ash at five volcanoes shrouded the skies over parts of the archipelago, forcing three airports to close.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Aug 15, In Ecuador several villages were evacuated, as the Cotopaxi volcano rumbled to life, angrily spewing ash into the sky and threatening nearby residents with potential volcanic landslides.
(AFP, 8/15/15)
2015 Nov 4, In Indonesia thousands of tourists were stranded on three islands after ash from Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island forced the closure of airports and blanketed villages and farmlands.
(AP, 11/4/15)
2016 Mar 27, In southwestern Alaska the Pavlof Volcano erupted sending ash 20,000 feet into the air.
(SFC, 3/29/16, p.A14)
2016 May 21, In Indonesia Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province blasted volcanic ash as high as 3 km (2 miles) into the sky. At least 7 people were killed while working on their farms in the village of Gamber.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 25, Italy's Mount Etna, Europe's highest and most active volcano, erupted spewing red torrents of lava into the sky.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
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201.4Mil BC A mass extinction occurred about this time. In 1999 it was reported that a titanic volcanic eruption occurred about this time and split an ancient super-continent. This process began the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Half of all marine species died in a few million years. [see 252 and 225 mil]
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.A3)(Econ, 11/8/03, p.78)(Econ, 3/27/10, p.88)
1Mil BC Ascension Island, the top of a volcano, broke through the surface of the Atlantic Ocean about this time. Since then the island has grown to about 100 square km.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.159)
74000BC The major Toba volcanic eruption occurred in Sumatra about this time. It was later believed that this eruption caused a major temperature drop and reduction in the human population. 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 Spyridon 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 mentioned 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)
940 Mount Paektu, a volcano straddling the border between North Korea and China, erupted about this time and covered a swath of North-East Asia in ashes. The millennium eruption is believed to have occurred between 930 and 940 AD.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.48)(AP, 9/3/14)
1362 In Iceland the Oraefajokull volcano erupted. This eruption was later believed to have eclipsed the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)
1600 Feb 19, Arequipa, Peru, was destroyed as the Huaynaputina volcano exploded catastrophically, in the largest volcanic explosion in South America in historic times. The eruption continued with associated earthquakes into March and devastated the socioeconomic fabric of southern Peru and neighboring Chile and Bolivia. The explosion had effects on climate around the Northern Hemisphere, where 1601 was the coldest year in six centuries, leading to a famine in Russia.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaynaputina)
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 people were killed.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T8)(MC, 12/16/01)
1669 Mar 11, Mount Etna in Sicily began erupting. Lava flows that destroyed at least 10 villages on its southern flank before reaching the city walls of the town of Catania five weeks later, on 15 April. Contemporaneous accounts written both in Italian and English mention no deaths related to this eruption (but give very precise figures of the number of buildings destroyed, the area of cultivated land lost, and the economic damage).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna)
1707 Japan’s Mount Fuji erupted. It produced only 2% as much ash as the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A12)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.23)
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, reducing the population to some 40,000 people. This was described by Haraldur Sigurdson in an article titled Volcanic Pollution and Climate: Eos 63, Aug. 10, 1982. The Laki eruption sent poisonous gases across Europe. In 2014 Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe authored “Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki: the Volcano that Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark."
(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)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.85)(Econ, 7/19/14,p.71)
1783 Jun 8-1784 Feb, A series of 10 eruptions from the Laki Craters on Iceland changed atmospheric 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 eruptions 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)
1809 A large volcanic eruption took place, but the exact location was unknown. Evidence was later found in ice cores of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.22)
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. Tsunamis and starvation that followed killed an estimated 60-120 thousand people.
(www.sullivan-county.com/immigration/e3.htm)(AP, 2/28/06)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.21)
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)
1816-1818 Bad weather around the world during this period was a result of the 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.22)
1821-1823 In Iceland the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted over this period.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)
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 authored 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)
1886 Jun 10, Mount Tarawera erupted at Rotorua on the North Island. 155 people were killed and several Maori and European settlements, including Te Wairoa, were destroyed.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T5)(SSFC, 10/28/12, p.M6)
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)
1912 Jun 6, In Alaska the Novarupta volcano began erupting 6 miles from Mount Katmai. When the eruption stopped on June 9th, the ash cloud had spread across southern Alaska. This was later recognized as the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Crops withered across Canada and the US that summer under skies shrouded with volcanic ash.
(http://geology.com/novarupta/)(Hem, 4/96, p.78)
1913 Mexico’s active Volcan de Fuego, part of the Colima volcano complex, experienced a major eruption. As of 2012 it has erupted more than 40 times since 1576. Only a fraction of the volcano's surface area is in the state of Colima; the majority of its surface area lies over the border in the neighboring state of Jalisco.
(SSFC, 8/19/12, p.P3)(www.gomanzanillo.com/old_articles/volcano/)
1914 Jun, Mt. Lassen in northern California began erupting and continued to spew volcanic debris through 1921.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.T5)(SSFC, 6/15/14, DB p.46)
1915 May 22, At Mt. Lassen in northern California a searing cloud of hot gas and vaporized lava created the Devastated Area, a mile wide and 5 miles long.
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T8)
1915 Jun 3, In northern California the Mount Lassen volcano erupted.
(SSFC, 5/31/15, DB p.42)
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)
1930 Nov 21, In Indonesia lava began flowing as the Mount Merapi volcano erupted. 13 villages were destroyed and some 1369 people were killed by pyroclastic flows.
(http://dogeatdogma.com/merapi.htm)
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 continued 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)
1972 Aug 26, In southern Chile the Calbuco volcano erupted for four hours. It is considered one of the top three most potentially dangerous among Chile's 90 active volcanos.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calbuco_%28volcano%29)(AP, 4/23/15)
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 Aug, Chile’s Hudson Volcano erupted in Aisen province. It launched a cubic mile of ash and piled ash 18 inches (45 cm) high killing an estimated 1.5 million sheep on the Argentine side of the Andean mountain chain.
(SFCM, 10/3/04, p.51)(AP, 10/28/11)
1991 Mount Lokon, one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, erupted. It killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.
(AP, 10/26/11) (AP, 10/26/11)
1994 Nov 22, In Indonesia the Merapi volcano erupted. Pyroclastic flows and surges killed 43 people.
(http://dogeatdogma.com/merapi.htm)(Reuters, 10/26/10)
1996 May, In Montserrat a series of eruption from a volcano in the Soufriere 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 Antigua.
(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 puzzled 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)
2009 Dec 15, The Philippines' most active volcano oozed lava and shot up plumes of ash, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and face the possibility of a bleak Christmas in a shelter. State volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon volcano overnight to two steps below a major eruption.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2010 Mar 21, In southern Iceland a volcano erupted overnight, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate the area and diverting flights after authorities declared a local state of emergency.
(Reuters, 3/21/10)
2010 Apr 12, A British scientific expedition said it has discovered the world's deepest known underwater volcanic vent off the Cayman Islands.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Iceland a volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air, closing a major road and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 15, British airport operator BAA Ltd. said all flights at London's Heathrow Airport have been suspended for the rest of the day, causing travel chaos as ash clouds from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across Europe.
(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, Volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland and left a widening arc of grounded aircraft across Europe, as thousands of planes stayed on the tarmac to avoid the hazardous cloud. Travel chaos engulfed major European cities and the UN warned of possible health risks from falling ash.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 17, A lingering volcanic ash plume forced extended no-fly restrictions over much of Europe, as Icelandic scientists warned that volcanic activity had increased and showed no sign of abating, a portent of more travel chaos to come.
(AP, 4/17/10)
2010 Apr 26, In Guatemala the Santiaguito volcano showered sand and ash over a large western area in an "unusual" and "violent" eruption.
(AFP, 4/27/10)
2010 May 27, Authorities closed Guatemala's international airport after the nearby Pacaya volcano showered as much as 3 inches (8 centimeters) of ash over parts of the city. A television reporter was killed by a shower of burning rocks when he got too close to the volcano, about 15 miles (25 km) south of Guatemala City.
(AP, 5/28/10)(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 28, In Ecuador strong explosions rocked the Tungurahua volcano, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people from nearby villages.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 Aug 6, In Indonesia the Mount Karangetang volcano erupted, sending lava and a searing gas cloud tumbling down its slopes. At least four family members were swept away and feared dead.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 29, In Indonesia the Sinabung volcano on the island of Sumatra erupted for the first time in 400 years, spewing a vast cloud of smoke and ash into the air and sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
2010 Sep 7, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air, dusting villages 15 miles (25 km) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last week from four centuries of dormancy.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Oct 26, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano erupted, prompting terrified villagers to flee and join the thousands already evacuated from its slopes.
(Reuters, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 27, In Indonesia helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed on the remote islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people. Elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 28, Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Indonesia clouds of gray ash rumbled down the slopes of Mount Merapi in its most powerful eruption of a deadly week, prompting soldiers to force reluctant villagers to evacuate amid fears of a larger blast as the death toll reached 36. Storms again prevented aid deliveries to increasingly desperate survivors of a tsunami, including a teenage girl with an open chest wound, that killed 413 people in the Mentawai islands. The number of missing dropped by half to 163 as searchers discovered survivors who had fled to the hills.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 1, Icelandic Meteorological Office geophysicist Gunnar Gudmundsson said that floodwater is coming from the subglacial Grimsvotn volcano, but there are no signs of the underground tremors that would signal an eruption.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 1, Indonesia's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, one of 22 that have been increasingly active, spewed searing clouds of gas and debris for hours in its most powerful eruption in a deadly week that has left 38 dead.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, In Indonesia clouds of hot ash gushed from the Mount Merapi volcano, forcing motorists in cities 20 miles (30 km) away to use their headlights in broad daylight and raising aviation concerns. The death toll climbed to 44.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, In Indonesia searing gas avalanched down the Mount Merapi volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled. About 70 more people were killed raising the death toll to 122.
(AP, 11/5/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 8, In Indonesia frightened residents abandoned their homes in Yogyakarta, a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Mount Merapi, as authorities warned the volcano could erupt again at any time. 153 people have been killed in the last two weeks.
(AP, 11/8/10)(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed clouds of ash high into the sky, forcing some international airlines to again cancel flights and President Barack Obama to cut short his visit.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Indonesia rescuers digging through several feet of ash discovered nine more bodies on the slopes of Mount Merapi, whose explosive eruption a week ago buried whole villages. Confirmation of more deaths trickled in and the toll from a series of blasts at the volcano rose to at least 250.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 17, Indonesia’s disaster agency said that the death toll due to Mount Merapi had risen to 275 and that most of the people were killed by searing gas clouds. Others died during panicked evacuations or from respiratory problems and other illnesses linked to the volcano.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 21, In Indonesia the death toll from the Mount Merapi volcano rose to 304 after more victims succumbed to severe burns and illnesses.
{Indonesia, Volcano}
(SFC, 11/22/10, p.A2)
2011 Jan 13, Italy's Mount Etna has come back to life with a brief eruption that sent lava down its slopes and a cloud of ash into the sky, forcing the overnight closure of a nearby airport. Its last major eruption was in 1992.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Mar 6, Scientists at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano said a new vent has opened, sending lava shooting up to 65 feet high.
(AP, 3/7/11)
2011 May 22, Iceland closed its main international airport and canceled all domestic flights as the Grimsvotn volcano sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles (20 km) high.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 24, About 250 flights to northern Britain were canceled over concerns about the ash cloud spewing from an Icelandic volcano, but British and Irish officials dismissed fears of a mass shutdown of airspace.
(Reuters, 5/24/11)
2011 Jun 4, In southern Chile the long dormant Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, one of the volcanoes in the Caulle Cordon, erupted violently, billowing smoke and ash high into the sky and prompting more than 3,500 people living nearby to evacuate.
(AP, 6/5/11)(Reuters, 6/5/11)(AP, 6/5/11)
2011 Jun 11, Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano continued to sporadically spew a cloud of ash, disrupting airline travel from Brazil and Argentina to as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
(AP, 6/11/11)
2011 Jun 12, Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano continued to emit a cloud of ash, disrupting flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. Authorities were also monitoring the volcano for its potential to cause landslides and avalanches.
(AP, 6/12/11)
2011 Jun 14, In Chile The cloud of ash spewing from an erupting volcano grounded more flights in countries from Uruguay to Australia and threatened to delay next month's start of the Copa America football tournament in Argentina.
(AP, 6/14/11)
2011 Jul 7, Ash from a Chilean volcano grounded flights across much of South America again, disrupting travel for thousands of people just as the continent's premier football tournament got going in Argentina.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 14, In Indonesia Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island burst into life late at night and continued to spew ash and searing gas into the air well into the next morning, prompting more than 4,500 residents to head to safety.
(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Indonesia the Mount Lokon volcano on northern Sulawesi island erupted again and released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 11,400 feet (3,500 meters) into the sky.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Oct 28, Chile's Hudson Volcano released three huge columns of steam and ash that combined in a cloud more than 3 miles (5 km) high.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 7, In the CongoDRC the Nyamulagira volcano (also known as Nyamuragira) began an eruption that happens about every two years. It has been described as Africa’s most active volcano and has erupted over 40 times since 1885.
(AFP, 11/9/11)(http://tinyurl.com/ckekoy5)
2011 Dec 27, In eastern Indonesia mudflows streaming from a volcano killed four villagers and about 1,000 others have fled their homes. Mount Gamalama in the Molucca Islands sprang to life this month with a powerful, non-fatal eruption.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2012 Apr 20, Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano shot a heavy plume of ash into the sky southeast of Mexico City and spewed glowing rock from its crater at dawn.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Aug 6, In New Zealand Mount Tongariro spewed ash and rocks for about 30 minutes after a few weeks of increased seismic activity. It didn't cause any injuries or damage in the sparsely populated central North Island region.
(AP, 8/7/12)
2012 Sep 8, In Nicaragua the San Cristobal volcano spewed out a column of ash and gas 2½ miles high, leading authorities to evacuate about 3,000 people from nine communities around the country's tallest mountain.
(AP, 9/8/12)
2012 Sep 13, In Guatemala the Volcan del Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, erupted in a ferocious lava flow 6 miles from Antigua.
(AP, 9/14/12)
2012 Nov 21, New Zealand’s Mount Tongariro erupted with a brief blast of dark ash, canceling flights but causing no significant damage. Tongariro National Park has three active volcanoes.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2013 May 7, In the Philippines the active Mayon volcano spewed room-sized rocks toward nearly 30 surprised climbers, killing 5 and injuring others who were fetched with rescue helicopters and rope. The 2,460-meter (8,070-foot) mountain, about 340 km (212 miles) southeast of Manila, has erupted about 40 times during the last 400 years.
(AP, 5/7/13)
2013 Jul 4, In Mexico the Popocatepetl volcano registered several tremors after spraying rock and ash over the last 24 hours. At leaqst 40 commercial flights in the Mexico City area were canceled.
(SFC, 7/5/13, p.A3)
2013 Aug 10, In eastern Indonesia gushing hot lava from the erupting Mount Rokatenda volcano killed 6 people sleeping in a beach village on Palue island. Ash and smoke shot up to 2 km into the air.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Oct 26, Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, erupted, sending up a towering plume of ash visible in much of eastern Sicily.
(AP, 10/26/13)
2013 Nov 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano erupted for the third time in as many months on the western island of Sumatra, forcing hundreds of villagers to evacuate.
(Reuters, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 16, Sicily’s Mount Etna began erupting againt.
(SFC, 11/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 17, In Sicily eruptions at Mount Etna volcano died down, allowing the nearby airport of Catania to re-open after a two-day stoppage that disrupted dozens of flights.
(AFP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 29, El Salvador authorities evacuated an area around the Chaparrastique volcano after the peak shot a cloud of gas and ash about 3 miles (5 km) into the air.
(AP, 12/29/13)
2013 Dec 31, In Indonesia more than 19,000 people were displaced by the Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra that has been erupting for months and shot lava into the air nine times overnight.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2014 Feb 1, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano, that has been rumbling for months, unleased a major eruption killing 14 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes.
(AP, 2/1/14)
2014 Feb 1, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano, that has been rumbling for months, unleased a major eruption killing at least 15 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes.
(AP, 2/1/14)(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung shot hot ash and rocks high into the air again, halting a search for any more victims from its Feb 1 eruption.
(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Indonesia a volcanic eruption on Java sent a 17 km (10 mile) ash cloud into the air. More than 56,000 people were forced to flee their homes and four 4 were killed when Mount Kelud erupted.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Apr 4, Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed a 6-mile (10-km) column of ash after a powerful, five-minute explosion that shot pyroclastic material onto its northern and northwestern flanks.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 May 31, Some flights between Australia and southeast Asia and all domestic flights operating out of Darwin airport in the country’s north were canceled after the eruption a day earlier of Sangeang Api in Indonesia’s south produced a large cloud of ash.
(Reuters, 5/31/14)
2014 Aug 22, Scientists in Hawaii began warning the public on the lava flow at Pahoa on the Big Island. The lava was flowing at 2-20 yards per hour and in late October was 510 yards from Pahoa Village Road, which goes through downtown Pahoa.
(SFC, 10/29/14, p.A6)
2014 Aug 23, Iceland said its Bardarbunga volcano has begun erupting under the ice of Europe’s largest glacier, prompting the country to close the airspace over the volcano. Iceland the next day said no eruption took place, but that one remained imminent following increased seismic activity.
(SSFC, 8/24/14, p.A10)(SFC, 8/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 29, In Papua New Guinea Mount Tavurvur erupted early today in Rabaul district on New Britain Island. The eruption forced several communities to evacuate and some international flights were diverted.
(AP, 8/29/14)
2014 Sep 27, In central Japan the Mount Ontake volcano erupted in spectacular fashion, catching mountain climbers by surprise. At least 51 people were killed with 63 injured.
(AP, 9/27/14)(Reuters, 10/1/14)(AP, 10/4/14)
2014 Nov 23, In Cape Verde the volcano Pico do Fogo erupted forcing more than 1,000 people to evacuate from the Cha das Caldeiras region. By mid-December lava flow destroyed two villages and threatened a forest reserve.
(AFP, 12/16/14)
2014 Nov 28, In southern Japan the Mount Aso volcano blasted out chunks of magma in the first such eruption in 22 years, causing flight cancellations and prompting warnings to stay away from its crater.
(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Dec 19, In eastern Indonesia the Mount Gamalama volcano on Ternate island in North Maluku province erupted, spewing towering clouds of hot ash into the air and leaving four hikers injured and one missing when they scrambled to safety.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2015 Mar 12, Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash up to 3,280 feet (1 km) into the air in its most powerful eruption in two decades.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Apr 22, In southern Chile the Calbuco volcano erupted for the first time in more than four decades. LATAM airlines cancelled flights to and from Puerto Montt. One hiker was reported missing.
(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 May 25, In Ecuador's Galapagos islands the Wolf volcano erupted after being dormant for 33 years. The eruption threatened a unique species of pink iguanas.
(Reuters, 5/25/15)
2015 May 29, In Japan Mount Shindake erupted on Kuchinoerabu island spewing out rocks and sending black clouds of ash 9 km (5.6 miles) into the sky.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 Jun 13, In western Indonesia the Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra unleashed a new powerful burst high into the sky sending hot ash far down the mountain's slopes.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 15, In western Indonesia hundreds more villagers were evacuated on Sumatra island as Mount Sinabung volcano spewed at least 28 hot ash avalanches.
(SFC, 6/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 9, In western Mexico the Colima Volcano, also known as the Volcano of Fire, began erupting and continued into the next morning.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 10, In Indonesia Mount Raung in East Java province began spewing ash sparking chaos for holidaymakers. Airports were closed and international airlines canceled flights to tourist hotspot Bali, stranding thousands.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, In western Mexico ash and cinders spewed from the Colima Volcano, prompting authorities to close the airport in the state capital of Colima and order the evacuation of a half dozen hamlets on the flanks of the peak.
(AP, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 16, In Indonesia eruptions at Mount Raung and Mount Gamalama caused closures at three airports, including Juanda International serving Surabaya, the country's 2nd-largest city.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 22, In Indonesia eruptions of ash at five volcanoes shrouded the skies over parts of the archipelago, forcing three airports to close.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Aug 15, In Ecuador several villages were evacuated, as the Cotopaxi volcano rumbled to life, angrily spewing ash into the sky and threatening nearby residents with potential volcanic landslides.
(AFP, 8/15/15)
2015 Nov 4, In Indonesia thousands of tourists were stranded on three islands after ash from Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island forced the closure of airports and blanketed villages and farmlands.
(AP, 11/4/15)
2016 Mar 27, In southwestern Alaska the Pavlof Volcano erupted sending ash 20,000 feet into the air.
(SFC, 3/29/16, p.A14)
2016 May 21, In Indonesia Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province blasted volcanic ash as high as 3 km (2 miles) into the sky. At least 7 people were killed while working on their farms in the village of Gamber.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 25, Italy's Mount Etna, Europe's highest and most active volcano, erupted spewing red torrents of lava into the sky.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
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