Mount Tambora

The biggest volcanic eruption in human history occurred in 1815 on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, leaving 100,000 dead. There was between six months and three years of steaming and small eruptions after the initial one. Because of the 400 million ton cloud of gas the volcano created, the earth began to cool and 1816 became known as "The Year Without Summer" because of the low temperatures, which killed crops and led to mass starvation.


Mount Krakatoa

The volcanic island, which is between the Indonesian islands Java and Sumatra, erupted in 1883 with a force 13,000 times that of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Over 36,000 people died. The explosion holds the record for the loudest sound ever heard.
The sound was heard over 3,000 miles away from its origin point. The eruption produced a 130 foot high tsunami, which destroyed villages and killed 90 percent of the total people who died in the disaster.


Mount Vesuvius

The famous Italian volcano, the only active one on the European continent, erupted in 79 AD, killing at least 16,000 people with suffocating ash and instantly decimating Pompei and Herculeneam. Excavations beginning in the 19th century have been uncovering the skeletal remains of the volcano's victims.
The volcano has erupted 30 times since then and scientists predict that the next eruption will be terrible, endangering the lives of at least 600,000 Italians living within its red zone.


Mount Nevado del Ruiz

Mount Pelee is a volcano on Martinique, the Caribbean island which was colonized by the French. On May 2, 1902 the rivers in St. Pierre were filled with boulders and trees from the mountain and the air was contaminated with sulfur. The eruption produced a tsunami that flooded the city.
One side of the volcano collapsed, releasing boiling water and mud into the sugar farms and burying people alive. The eruption is known as the deadliest in the 20th century, killing at least 29,000 people.


Mount Unzen

Mount Unzen is located in a cluster of volcanoes in Japan's Shimabara Peninsula. Mount Unzen's 1792 eruption triggered an avalanche from Mount Mayuyama. The landslide created a tsunami that killed 15,000 people.


Mount Kelud

This particularly active Indonesian volcano is especially deadly because its crater lake has caused lahars, which killed 10,000 in a 1586 explosion and 5,000 in 1919. Dams and drainage tunnels have been built since then to protect nearby villages from future volcanic eruptions.


Mount Laki

In 1783 Laki, a volcano in Iceland, exploded. The 120 million tons of gas that Laki emitted during the eight-month eruption killed 20% of Iceland's population (approx. 9,350 people), due to famine. The volcanic eruption had one of the greatest global impacts in history as the sulfur out pour caused crop failures in Europe, droughts in India and famine in Japan and Egypt.
Environmental historians have even conjectured that Laki's eruption could have helped spark the French Revolution, as famine was one of the key issues the people raised against the French monarchy.


Mount Santa Maria

Before its eruption in 1902, the Santa Maria Volcano, located in Guatemala, had been dormant for 500 years. Local people around the volcano were unable to detect the volcano's activity for this reason. 6,000 were killed by the eruption itself, which released 5.5 cubic kilometers of magma. An outbreak of malaria that followed the eruption killed many more.
The city of Quezaltenango is located directly under the volcano and a new lava dome complex called Santiaguito has been forming in the crater which the eruption left.


Mount Mayon

While no one was killed in the blast, over 56,000 people in the Philippines had to evacuate when Mount Mayon erupted several times over the course of two days in January 2018. One of the most active volcanoes in the region, Mount Mayon erupted for eight minutes in the afternoon on January 22, 2018 and then erupted an estimated five more times that night and the following morning. Both members of the army and the police force helped residents flee from the lava, the fountains of which reached heights of 1,640 feet to 2,297 feet.


Mount Fuego

On June 3, 2018, Mount Fuego, which is 30 miles southwest of Guatemala City, erupted. The active volcano spewed out ash and lava, leaving at least 33 people dead in its wake. The eruption lasted nearly 16 hours before it settled.
More than 3,200 people have evacuated the area, but many people are still missing. Guatemalan officials are fearful that the death toll may be higher than initially estimated in the aftermath of the eruption.
Guatelemala's national disaster response agency, CONRED, said the substance spewed by the volcano is a pyroclastic flow, which the US Geological Survey defines as a "high-density mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash, and volcanic ash."