Around the planet, there are 860 volcanoes which have erupted at some point since the
end of the last ice age of which 50 are erupting right now.
Additionally, there are another 472 volcanoes which are suspected to have erupted in the
last 11,650 years but do not yet have precisely dated eruption deposits such as the Crow Lagoon
volcano in Canada.
Because there are so many volcanoes with recent eruptions, it can be difficult to answer a
simple question; which volcanoes in the world are consistently the most explosive?
This video will answer that question, by briefly discussing the 10 volcanoes based on the number
of explosive volcanic eruptions they have produced which were comparable to or larger
than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens.
Before I begin I want to state that all of the eruption sizes and dates were pulled from
the Smithsonian Institute's Global Volcanism Program's "volcanoes of the world" database.
The reason why I am bringing up the 1980 to 1986 eruption of Mount Saint Helens as a comparison
is twofold.
First, that eruption is one of the most well known due to the sheer number of people it
effected.
Second, this eruption explosively ejected 1.3 cubic kilometers of volcanic rock, per
the U.S. Geological Survey.
This puts it just over the margin required to be classified as a 5 on the 0 to 8 volcanic
explosivity index.
With the exception of between 0 and 1 and 1 and 2, each increase in number represents
an explosive eruption which is 10 times larger.
Eruptions that rate as a 5 or larger can undeniably be described as large volcanic eruptions and
are thus incredibly uncommon.
For example, in the last 200 years, out of the 5,469 volcanic eruptions which occurred,
only 20 were rated as a VEI 5 or higher on the volcanic explosivity index scale, representing
the largest 0.37% of volcanic eruptions.
Thus, I have specifically narrowed my criteria for the most explosive volcanoes since the
end of the last ice age based on the number of eruptions a volcano produced that were
5 or larger on this scale.
In 10th place, we have the Hekla volcano in Iceland.
This combination fissure and stratovolcano has historically been one of the most active
volcanoes in the country.
It has produced 5 VEI 5 eruptions since the end of the last ice age, the most recent of
which occurred in 1104.
The next most explosive volcano which earns spot number 9 on this list is Okataina.
Okataina is a complex of lava domes, calderas, and fissure vents which produced major explosive
eruptions from 1310 to 1315 and in 1886.
The former eruption might be linked to the Great Russian Famine of 1315.
Spot number 8 goes to Mount Vesuvius, which famously produced deadly eruptions in both
79 CE, which destroyed the city of Pompeii and during 1631 to 1632.
The cone of Vesuvius sits within a larger caldera.
The 7th most consistently explosive volcano in the world is the remote Russian volcano
of Ksudach.
Last producing a VEI 5 eruption in 1907, this complex is a group of numerous overlapping
volcanic craters and calderas.
Spot number 6 goes to the Taupo supervolcano in New Zealand.
Although Taupo did produce one of the planet's few recent VEI 7 eruptions in 233, it also
produced major explosive events in 1460 BCE, and 8130 BCE.
The 5th most explosive volcano on the planet is Witori in Papua New Guinea.
This volcano is one of two active complexes on the planet to be considered a lava cone
volcano, aka a cone made out of highly viscous lava.
Witori produced 3 VEI 6 eruptions during the last 11,650 years.
4th place goes to Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines while 3rd place goes to Cotopaxi in Ecuador.
Meanwhile, the second most consistently explosive volcano on the planet is Mount Saint Helens,
with 7 eruptions being equal in size or larger than its infamous 1980s eruption.
One such eruption was an order of magnitude larger.
And finally, with 17 VEI 5 eruptions and also a whopping 26 VEI 4 eruptions since the end
of the last ice age, the Sheveluch volcano in Russia is by far the world's most consistently
explosive volcano.
Not only is this volcano in the middle of an eruption rated as a VEI 4, but it notably
produced a massive summit collapse and debris avalanche in 1964 which travelled up to 10
miles or 16 kilometers from its summit.
Here is a list of when each of its VEI 5 eruptions occurred since the end of the last ice age.
As a final note, this volcano takes the number 1 spot for producing the most VEI 5, VEI 4,
and VEI 3 eruptions during the aforementioned timespan.
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