Around the planet, there are a grand total of 1,357 active volcanoes.
They are designated as active because they are either erupting right now, or have erupted
at some point in the last 10,000 years.
A large portion of these volcanoes are relatively harmless because they are located in highly
remote areas, such as Imuruk Lake in Alaska.
However, if large amounts of people live around a volcano, on the orders of thousands or millions
of people, eruptions have the potential to be catastrophic.
Thus, the question needs to be asked, what are the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet,
and which one tops the list?
This video will use the scientific method to answer this question, using a method for
rating how dangerous volcanoes are which was developed by the US Geological Survey.
At the end of this video, a complete top 25 list will be shown.
The methodology I will be using takes into account several factors which include but
are not limited to: how often the volcano erupts, how large its eruptions are, does
it have snow or water on its edifice, has it generated any tsunamis, has the volcano
killed people, and the volume of air traffic which could be effected.
Under this system, volcanoes are assigned a risk category ranging from very low risk
to very high risk.
All of the volcanoes in the top 25 list are designated in the very high risk category,
but it can sometimes be counterintuitive.
For example, in the United States you might expect the most dangerous volcano to be Mount
Saint Helens.
Yet, on the list of volcanoes, Kilauea is rated as the most dangerous volcano in the
country.
The reason for this is Kilauea erupts far more frequently, has produced a higher death
toll than Mount Saint Helens, and is a significant portion of a populated island, which is one
of the key factors in this rating.
With this being said, here are a few dangerous volcanoes which did not make the top 25, but
are still quite notable.
The most deadly volcano in Japan, Mount Unzen, has resulted in more than 14,000 deaths throughout
its history.
Yet, because its eruptions are never truly that large or frequent as other volcanoes,
it ranks in at number 31.
Mount Pinatubo ranks in at number 29, and produced a deadly eruption which caused the
almost complete collapse of the overall volcano in 1991.
It would rank higher on the list if not for the fact that the time period between its
eruptions is typically several hundred to thousand years.
Ranking it at number 25 is the volcano which created the deadliest eruption of the 20th
century, Mount Pelee.
In the span of only a few minutes, the town of Saint-Pierre on the island of Martinique
was completely wiped out, resulting in 30,000 deaths.
The second deadliest eruption of the 20th century resulted from an eruption of the Nevado
del Ruiz volcano in Colombia, which ranks in at number 21.
A volcanic eruption melted a large volume of glacial ice, resulting in a type of fluid
mudflow called a lahar which was 30 meters or 98 feet tall travelling downslope and wiping
out the town of Amero.
Further up on the list, we have a volcano which produced one of the largest eruption
of the last 10,000 years, Mount Tambora.
It produced the deadliest eruption in recorded history in 1815, as 150 cubic kilometers of
ash and molten rock was ejected, causing global temperatures to drop, and creating the so
called "year without a summer".
It ranks in at number 18.
Now, for the top 10.
At number 10 we have the Tarawera or Okataina volcano in New Zealand, which produced the
nations deadliest volcanic eruption in 1886.
Mount Fuji, although it has not had a confirmed eruption since 1707, has a history of large
explosive eruptions, has more than 1 million residents in potential harms way, and is relatively
close to the two busiest airports in Japan, which serve a combined 124 million people
each year.
Mount Etna in Italy ranks as 8th primarily due to its frequent explosive eruptions which
at times have destroyed entire cities.
Number 7 also produced a volcanic winter, with a major caldera collapse causing worldwide
famines in 1257, Mount Rinjani.
Number 6 is Mount Aso, which is a supervolcano that just produced a major explosive eruption.
Number 5 is also a supervolcano, and is known as Campi Flegrei.
Previous eruptions from this supervolcano have resulted in pyroclastic flows travelling
up to 50 kilometers distant, sweeping across all of what is now Naples.
Number 4 is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, Sakurijima.
It merely represents the youngest vent of a supervolcano known as the Aira caldera,
which formed the massive circular depression representing two calderas to the north.
Mount Vesuvius comes in as the world's 3rd most dangerous volcano.
Its historical eruptions have destroyed entire cities, most famously Pompeii and Herculaneum
in 79 AD.
When it erupts again, it is quite possible that it could destroy the entire city of Naples,
and effect its 4 million nearby residents.
The second most dangerous volcano on the planet is Krakatoa.
In 1883, it famously collapsed into the ocean, forming a large caldera, and generating a
towering tsunami.
This released a superheated gas current known as a pyroclastic flow, which travelled 46
miles or 75 kilometers across the ocean before reaching two adjacent islands.
The single most dangerous volcano on the planet is the Taal volcano in the Philippines.
This volcano essentially maxed out every category on the US Geological Survey rating scale.
It has produced frequent and deadly explosive eruptions, such as the one in 2020 and is
part of a densely populated island.
It has produced several edifice and caldera collapses, as the entirety of Taal Lake represents
at least 4 overlapping calderas.
One of these eruptions was rated on the volcanic explosivity index as a 7, which correlates
to a single eruption at least 7 times the size of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
Its numerous eruptions have also created tsunamis, the most recent of which occurred in 1911.
Prehistoric eruptions of Taal have resulted in pyroclastic flows even reaching Manilla,
which is 65 kilometers to the north.
Thus, whenever Taal erupts, approximately 25 million people are in the potential danger
zone of this volcano.
For those of you who stayed until the end, here is the complete list of the 25 most dangerous
volcanoes on the planet.
Thanks for watching.
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