In the new millennium, the most terrible reports of disasters come from countries with high tectonic activity. Earthquakes cause enormous destruction and provoke tsunamis that wash away entire cities:

• the 2011 Japanese tsunami (16,000 victims);
• earthquake in Nepal in 2015 (8,000 victims);
• earthquake in Haiti in 2010 (100-500 thousand dead);
• 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean (according to confirmed data, 184 thousand in 4 countries).

Volcanoes in the new century bring only minor inconveniences. Emissions volcanic ash interrupt air traffic, cause discomfort associated with evacuation and unpleasant smell sulfur.

But it was (and will be) not always like this. In the past, the largest eruptions caused much more serious consequences. Scientists believe that the longer a volcano sleeps, the stronger its next eruption will be. Today there are 1,500 volcanoes in the world that are up to 100 thousand years old. 500 million people live in close proximity to the fire-breathing mountains. Each of them lives on a powder keg, because people have not learned to accurately predict the time and place of a likely disaster.

The most terrible eruptions are associated not only with magma escaping from the depths in the form of lava, but also with explosions, fragments of flying rock, and changes in relief; smoke and ash covering vast areas, carrying chemical compounds that are deadly to humans.

Let's look at the 10 deadliest events of the past that resulted from a volcanic eruption.

Kelud (about 5,000 dead)

An active Indonesian volcano is located 90 kilometers from the second most populous city in the country - Surabaya, on the island of Java. The strongest officially recorded eruption of Kelud is considered to be a catastrophe that killed more than 5,000 people in 1919. A special feature of the volcano is the lake located inside the crater. On May 19 of that year, the reservoir, boiling under the influence of magma, brought down about 38 million cubic meters of water on residents of nearby villages. Along the way, silt, dirt, and stones mixed with the water. The population suffered more from the mudflow than from the explosion and lava.

After the incident in 1919, the authorities took measures to reduce the area of ​​the lake. The last volcanic eruption dates back to 2014. As a result, 2 people died.

Santa Maria (5,000 - 6,000 victims)

The volcano, located in the central part of the American continent (in Guatemala), had been dormant for about 500 years before its first eruption in the 20th century. Having lulled the vigilance of the locals, they did not attach much importance to the earthquake that began in the fall of 1902. A terrible explosion that sounded on October 24 destroyed one of the mountain slopes. Over three days, 5,000 residents were killed by 5,500 cubic meters of magma and bursting rock. A column of smoke and ash from the smoking mountain spread 4,000 km to the American San Francisco. Another 1,000 residents suffered from epidemics caused by the eruption.

Lucky (more than 9,000 dead)

The most powerful known eruption of Icelandic volcanoes continued for 8 months. In July 1783, Lucky woke up, completely unhappy. Lava from its vent flooded about 600 square kilometers of the island. But the most dangerous consequences were the clouds of toxic smoke that could be observed even in China. Fluoride and sulfur dioxide killed all crops and most of the island's livestock. Slow death from starvation and toxic gases overtook more than 9,000 (20% of the population) of Iceland's inhabitants.

Other parts of the planet were also affected. The decrease in air temperature in the Northern Hemisphere as a result of the disaster led to crop failure throughout the United States, Canada and part of Eurasia.

Vesuvius (6,000 - 25,000 casualties)

One of the most famous natural disasters happened in 79 new era. Vesuvius, according to various sources, killed from 6 to 25 thousand ancient Romans. For a long time, this catastrophe was considered a fiction and a hoax by Pliny the Younger. But in 1763, archaeological excavations finally convinced the world of the existence and death, under a layer of ash, ancient city Pompeii. The smoke curtain reached Egypt and Syria. It is reliably known that Vesuvius destroyed three whole cities (also Stabiae and Herculaneum).

The Russian artist Karl Bryullov, who was present at the excavations, was so impressed by the history of Pompeii that he dedicated the most famous of his paintings to the city national painting. Vesuvius still poses a huge danger; it is not without reason that on our website there is an article about the planet itself, in which Vesuvius is given special attention.

Unzen (15,000 dead)

No disaster rating is complete without a country rising sun. The most powerful eruption in Japanese history took place in 1792. The Unzen volcano (actually a complex consisting of four volcanic domes), located on the Shimabara Peninsula, is to blame for the death of 15 thousand inhabitants; it played the role of an intermediary. Unzen, which had been erupting for several months, gradually, as a result of tremors, displaced one of the flanks of the Mayu-Yama dome. A landslide caused by rock movement buried 5 thousand inhabitants of the island of Kyushu. The twenty-meter tsunami waves provoked by Unzen caused great casualties (10,000 dead).

Nevado del Ruiz (23,000 - 26,000 victims)

Located in the Colombian Andes, the Ruiz stratovolcano is notorious for causing lahars (a flow of mud from volcanic ash, rock and water). The largest convergence occurred in 1985 and is better known as the “Armero Tragedy.” Why did people remain in such dangerous proximity to the volcano, since even before 1985 lahars were the scourge of the region?

It's all about fertile soils, generously fertilized with volcanic ash. The prerequisites for a future disaster became noticeable a year before the incident. A small mudflow dammed the local river, and magma rose to the surface, but the evacuation never took place.

When a plume of smoke rose from the crater on November 13, local authorities advised against panic. But a small eruption led to the melting of the glacier. Three mud flows, the largest of which reached thirty meters in width, destroyed the city in a matter of hours (23 thousand dead and 3 thousand missing).

Montagne-Pelée (30,000 - 40,000 dead)

1902 brought another deadly eruption on our list. The resort island of Martinique was hit by the awakening stratovolcano Mont Pele. And played again decisive role carelessness of the authorities. Explosions in the crater, which brought down stones on the heads of the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre; The volcanic mud and lava that destroyed the sugar factory on May 2 did not convince the local governor of the seriousness of the situation. He personally persuaded the workers who fled the city to return.

And on May 8 there was an explosion. One of the schooners that entered the harbor decided to leave the port of Saint-Pierre in time. It was the captain of this ship (Roddam) who informed the authorities about the tragedy. A powerful pyroclastic flow covered the city with tremendous speed, and upon reaching the water, it raised a wave that washed away most of the ships in the harbor. In 3 minutes, 28,000 residents were either burned alive or died due to gas poisoning. Many died later from their burns and wounds.

The local prison provided an amazing rescue. The criminal imprisoned in the dungeon was spared both the lava flow and the poisonous smoke.

Krakatoa (36,000 victims)

The most widely known volcanic eruptions are led by Krakatoa, which brought down all its fury in 1883. The destructive power of the Indonesian volcano impressed contemporaries. And today the catastrophe of the late 19th century is included in all encyclopedias and reference books.

An explosion with a power of 200 megatons of TNT (10 thousand times more powerful than during the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima) destroyed an 800-meter mountain and the island on which it was located. The blast wave circled more than 7 times Earth. The sound from Krakatoa (possibly the loudest on the planet) was heard at a distance of more than 4000 km from the eruption site, in Australia and Sri Lanka.

86% of the dead (about 30 thousand people) suffered from a powerful tsunami caused by a raging fiery mountain. The rest were covered in debris from Krakatoa and volcanic debris. The eruption caused global climate changes on the planet. Average annual temperature due to negative impact emitted smoke and ash, fell by more than 1 degree Celsius and recovered to its previous level only after 5 years. Large casualties were avoided due to the low population density of the region.

Since 1950, a new volcano has erupted on the site of the old Krakatoa.

Tambora (50,000 - 92,000 dead)

The diameter of the crater of another Indonesian (who lives on a powder keg) volcano reaches 7,000 meters. This supervolcano (a semi-official term for a volcano capable of causing global climate change) is one of only 20 recognized by scientists as such.

The eruption began according to the usual scenario in such cases - with an explosion. But then an out-of-the-ordinary event happened: a huge fiery whirlwind formed, sweeping away everything in its path. The elements of fire and wind destroyed a village 40 km from the volcano to the ground.

Like Krakatoa, Tambora destroyed not only the civilization around it, but also itself. The tsunami, which occurred 5 days after the start of activity, claimed the lives of 4.5 thousand residents. A column of smoke blocked the sun for three days within a radius of 650 km from the volcano. Electrical discharges over the volcano accompanied the entire period of the eruption, which lasted three months. It claimed the lives of 12 thousand people.

The crew of the ship that arrived on the island with humanitarian aid was horrified by the picture of destruction they saw: the mountain was level with the plateau, the whole of Sumbawa was covered with debris and ash.

But the worst thing began later. As a result of the “nuclear winter,” more than 50 thousand people died from hunger and epidemics. In the United States, climate changes caused by the volcano provoked snow in June, and a typhus epidemic began in Europe. Crop failure and famine accompanied many places on the planet for three years.

Santorini (death of civilization)

The once large mountain and island near Greece, photographed from space, appears as a volcanic crater flooded with the waters of the Aegean Sea. It is impossible to establish, even approximately, the number of deaths from the eruption 3.5 thousand years ago. What is known for certain is that as a result of the eruption of Santorini, the Minoan civilization was completely destroyed. According to various sources, the resulting tsunami reached from 15 to 100 meters in height, covering space at a speed of 200 km/h.

By the way, Santorini is on our list in the world.

There is an assumption that the legendary Atlantis was destroyed by a volcano, which is indirectly confirmed by many sources of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Egypt. Some Old Testament stories are also associated with the eruption.

And although these versions are still just legends, we should not forget that Pompeii, at one time, was also considered a hoax.

Photo 1 - uncontrollable elements of volcanic eruptions

Volcano Krakatoa

The most catastrophic consequences for environment caused by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano on the Malay Archipelago in 1883. For 200 years, the volcano was inactive, consisting of three fused craters with a height of 798 m and an area of ​​about 10 km², and was considered extinct.

Photo 2 – view from an engraving of the Krakatoa volcano before the 1883 eruption

The preconditions for a global catastrophe were moon eclipse April 22 and solar eclipse on May 6. On the morning of August 27, a gigantic explosion occurred, the power of which exceeded 100,000 times atomic bomb Hiroshima, the shock wave instantly destroyed all life over vast areas and circled the Earth several times.

Dull rumbles were heard in Australia at a distance of 5000 km. A hot cloud of gases rushed 80 km into the air, and ash scattered over an area of ​​more than 4 million square kilometers.

Photo 4 - tsunami on the coast of Java and Sumatra

Giant vibrations of sea waves created a tsunami up to 30 meters high, one of which circled the Earth. The death toll reached 40,000 people. The eruption of Krakatoa formed a caldera (a rounded basin after the collapse of a volcanic cone) with a diameter of 7 km.

Photo 5 – the consequences of a global catastrophe. The line outlines the contour of the island of Krakatoa, destroyed by the eruption of 1883, in the central part is the young volcano Anak Krakatoa. Below is part of the Rakata crater. View from space

In place of the island, part of the Rakata crater, the islets of Sertung and Panjang remained. Two other craters disappeared and changed the topography of the seabed.

In 1927, an underwater eruption of magmatic substances caused the formation of a new volcanic cone, Anak Krakatoa (son of Krakatoa), protruding approximately nine meters above the sea surface.

Photo 6 – Anak Krakatoa eruption in 2010

Since its formation, there have been five major volcanic eruptions and a continuous increase in mass by periodic ejections of rock. Currently, the “baby” has risen to a height of 813 meters and occupies a space with a diameter of 4 kilometers.

Volcano Tambora

The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 led to the death of the people and culture of the inhabitants of the island of Sumbawa, and great casualties of nearby islands.

The Earth's average global temperature dropped by just 0.5°C. But the consequences were terrible. A volcanic winter has set in on the Indonesian archipelago. In the northern hemisphere, the echoes of the disaster resulted in snow falling in the states in the middle of summer North America, frosts, frequent floods in Europe. In 1816, crop failures led to famine, disease, and high mortality across vast areas. In Russia this period is designated as “ troubled times» spontaneous food riots.

The volcanic eruption continued for several days, and began on April 5 with explosions in the crater and ash emissions over a distance of 600 km. Three pillars of fire with hot boulders shot up after him. Almost instantly, the fire tornado destroyed all life in its path.

The top of the mountain split and collapsed, forming a giant caldera with an area of ​​more than 38 km² and a depth of about 700 m. The shaking of the earth's interior caused the formation of four meter tsunami waves.

Photo 10 - ashes

Ash and smoke rose to a height of 43 km. Three days of darkness fell within a radius of 650 km. Tambora's eruption is estimated to have the energy of 200,000 atomic bombs.

Photo 11 - view of the caldera of Volcano Tambora today

Rock emissions amounted to almost 150 km³. From the original height of the volcano cone - 4000 m, as a result of the cataclysm, 2500 m remained. About 70,000 people died in the Malay Archipelago.

Volcano Pinatubo

Volcano Pinatubo, 1,486 meters high, is located on the island of Luzon in the Philippine archipelago, 93 kilometers from Manila. For 600 years he was not active.

In April 1991, tremors of increasing strength and clouds of steam above the summit were noted. June 12 and the next three days were marked by four powerful explosions, clouds of ash and gases rose to a height of 24 kilometers, and no lava flows were observed.

The disaster reached its greatest strength on June 15. A column of hot magmatic substances rushed into the stratosphere to a height of 34 kilometers and covered 125,000 km² of the sky.

Within a few hours, the ground in the volcano area was plunged into darkness. Singapore, located 2,400 kilometers from Pinatubo, was covered in ash fallout. The powerful eruption ejected about 10 km³ of rock, and the top of the volcano dropped by 253 meters.

A lake formed in the crater, which was filled with water by monsoon rains. Human casualties reached 900 people. The US strategic and naval base located in the disaster zone was destroyed.

Photo 17 - villages under a layer of ash

The power of ash emissions into the atmosphere exceeded the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano. Sulfuric acid fog was scattered in the atmosphere for several months. Meteorologists recorded a short drop of 0.5 °C in the average temperature of the globe.

In fact, volcanoes have shaped the appearance of the Earth over millions of years. Here are the most serious volcano-related disasters in human history.

№8 . Experts believe that the largest volcanic eruption that occurred at the dawn of mankind occurred in Sumatra: the volcano Toba erupted 71,000 years ago. Then about 2800 cubic meters were released into the atmosphere. km of ash, which could reduce the human population worldwide to just 10,000 people.

№7. Eruption El Chichon was not particularly large (5 on the VEI scale), with a maximum height of the eruptive column of 29 km. But there was a lot of sulfur in the cloud. In less than one month it surrounded the globe, but six months passed before it spread to 30° N. c, practically not spreading to the Southern Hemisphere. Specimens collected by aircraft and balloons, showed that the cloud particles were mostly tiny glass beads coated with sulfuric acid. Gradually sticking together, they settled faster on the ground, and after a year the mass of the remaining cloud was reduced to about an ounce from the original one. Absorption sunlight cloud particles warmed the equatorial stratosphere by 4° in June 1982, but at ground level in the Northern Hemisphere the temperature dropped by 0.4°.

№6. Lucky , a volcano in Iceland. Laki is a chain of more than 110-115 craters up to 818 m high, stretching for 25 km, centered on the Grimsvötn volcano and including the Eldgja Canyon and the Katla volcano. In 1783-1784, a powerful fissure eruption (6 on the eruption scale) occurred on Laki and the neighboring Grimsvotn volcano, releasing about 15 km³ of basaltic lava over 8 months. The length of the lava flow that erupted from a 25-kilometer fissure exceeded 130 km, and the area covered by it was 565 km². Clouds of toxic fluorine and sulfur dioxide compounds rose into the air, killing more than 50% of Iceland's livestock; Volcanic ash partially or completely covered pastures across most of the island. Huge masses of ice melted by lava led to large-scale floods. A famine began, resulting in the death of approximately 10 thousand people or 20% of the country's population. This eruption is considered one of the most destructive in the last millennium and the largest lava eruption in history. historical time. Fine ash erupted by the volcano was present in the second half of 1783 over most of Eurasia. The drop in temperature in the northern hemisphere caused by the eruption led to crop failure and famine in Europe in 1784.

№5. Eruption Vesuvius, perhaps the most famous eruption in the world. Vesuvius (Italian Vesuvio, Neap. Vesuvio) is an active volcano in southern Italy, about 15 km from Naples. Located on the shores of the Gulf of Naples in the province of Naples, Campania region. It is part of the Apennine mountain system and has an altitude of 1281 m.

The disaster killed 10,000 people and destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

№4 . In 1883 it happened catastrophic eruption volcano Krakatoa, which destroyed most of the island of the same name.

The eruption began in May. Until the end of August, a significant amount of rock was removed by explosions, which led to the devastation of the “underground chamber” under Krakatoa. The last powerful explosion of the pre-climax stage occurred at dawn on August 27. The ash column reached a height of 30 km. On August 28, most of the island, under its own weight and the pressure of the water column, collapsed into the voids below sea level, dragging with it a huge mass of ocean water, the contact of which with magma caused a powerful hydromagmatic explosion.

A significant part of the volcanic structure scattered within a radius of up to 500 km. This range of expansion was ensured by the rise of magma and rocks into rarefied layers of the atmosphere, to a height of up to 55 km. The gas-ash column rose into the mesosphere to a height of over 70 km. Ash fall occurred in the eastern Indian Ocean over an area of ​​over 4 million km². The volume of material ejected by the explosion was about 18 km³. The force of the explosion (6 points on the eruption scale), according to geologists, was no less than 200 thousand times greater than the force of the explosion that destroyed Hiroshima.
The roar of the explosion was clearly audible within a radius of 4 thousand km. On the coasts of Sumatra and Java, the noise level, according to scientists, reached 180 decibels or more.

A significant amount of volcanic ash remained in the atmosphere at altitudes of up to 80 km for several years and caused intense colors of the dawns.
The tsunami raised by the explosion up to 30 m high led to the death of about 36 thousand people on the neighboring islands, 295 cities and villages were washed into the sea. Many of them, before the tsunami approached, were probably destroyed by the air wave, which felled equatorial forests on the coast of the Sunda Strait and tore roofs off houses and doors off their hinges in Jakarta, 150 km from the disaster site. The atmosphere of the entire Earth was disturbed by the explosion for several days. The air wave circled the Earth, according to various sources, from 7 to 11 times.

№3 . For a long time, people believed the Colombian volcano Ruiz if not extinct, then at least dormant. They had reason for this: the last time this volcano erupted was in 1595, and then showed no signs of activity for almost five centuries.

The first signs of Ruiz's awakening became noticeable on November 12, 1985, when ash began to erupt from the crater. At 9 pm on November 13, several explosions occurred and a full-scale eruption began. The height of the column of smoke and rock fragments thrown out by explosions reached 8 meters. Due to the outpouring of lava and the release of hot gases, the temperature increased, as a result of which the snow and ice covering the volcano melted. Late in the evening, a mudflow reached the city of Armero, located 40 kilometers from the volcano, and virtually wiped it off the face of the earth. Several surrounding villages were also destroyed. Oil pipelines and power lines were damaged, bridges were destroyed. Due to downed telephone lines and washed out roads, communication with the affected area was interrupted.

According to official data from the Colombian government, about 23 thousand people died or went missing as a result of the eruption, and another 5 thousand were seriously injured or maimed. Tens of thousands of Colombians lost their homes and property. Coffee plantations were seriously damaged by the eruption: not only the coffee trees themselves were destroyed, but also a significant part of the already harvested crop. Colombia's economy suffered significant damage.

№2. Mont Pele . This eruption, which occurred in 1902 on the island of Martinique, became the strongest in the 20th century. Residents of the city of Saint-Pierre, located in Martinique, located only 8 kilometers from the Mont Pelee volcano, are accustomed to considering this mountain a peaceful neighbor. And, since the last eruption of this volcano, which occurred in 1851, was very weak, they did not pay special attention to the tremors and rumble that began at the end of April 1902. By May, the volcano’s activity intensified, and on May 8, one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century erupted.

At about 8 o'clock in the morning, Mont Pele erupted. A cloud of ash and rocks was thrown into the air, and a stream of lava rushed towards the city. However, the most terrible thing was not the ash and lava, but the hot volcanic gases that swept through Saint-Pierre at great speed, causing fires. Desperate people tried to escape on the ships standing in the port, but only the steamer Roddan managed to go to sea. Unfortunately, almost all of its crew and passengers died due to burns, leaving only the captain and driver alive.

As a result of the volcanic eruption, the city of Saint-Pierre was almost completely destroyed, and all the people and animals in it died. The Mont Pele eruption killed more than 30 thousand people; Of the city residents, only the criminal who was in the underground prison was able to survive.

Currently, Saint-Pierre has been partially restored, and a museum of volcanology has been built at the foot of Mont Pelée.

№1 Tambora

The first signs of the awakening of the volcano became noticeable back in 1812, when the first streams of smoke appeared over the top of Tambora. Gradually the amount of smoke increased, it became denser and darker. On April 5, 1815, a strong explosion occurred and an eruption began. The noise produced by the volcano was so strong that it was heard even 1,400 kilometers from the scene. Tambora's tons of sand and volcanic dust covered the entire area within a radius of one hundred kilometers with a thick layer. Residential buildings not only on the island of Sumbawa, but also on neighboring islands, collapsed under the weight of the ash. The ashes even reached the island of Borneo, located 750 kilometers from Tambora. The amount of smoke and dust in the air was so great that it was night within a radius of 500 kilometers from the volcano for three days. According to eyewitnesses, they did not see anything further than their own hand.

This terrible eruption, which lasted about 10 days, according to conservative estimates, claimed the lives of 50 thousand people. There are data according to which the death toll exceeded 90 thousand. Almost the entire population of Sumbawa was destroyed, and the inhabitants of the neighboring islands suffered severely both from the release of ash and huge stones, and from starvation resulting from the destruction of fields and livestock.

Due to the Tambora eruption, a huge amount of ash and dust accumulated in the Earth's atmosphere, and this had a significant impact on the climate of the entire planet. The year 1816 went down in history as the “year without summer.” Unusually cold temperatures have caused crop failures and famines on the east coast of North America and Europe this year. In some countries, snow remained for most of the summer, and in New York and the northeastern part of the United States, the thickness of the snow cover reached a meter. The effect of this volcanic winter gives an idea of ​​one of the consequences of a possible atomic war - nuclear winter.