It took only one eruption for the air communication to turn into a chaos, the airlines to lose nearly $ 2 billion, and tens of thousands of passengers to stay at the airports. Meanwhile, the world has plenty of killer-mountains, each of which can wake up in any worst possible time for the tourists. Here are the 10 most dangerous volcanoes that can deliver no less trouble than the notorious Eyyafyalayokudl, which has only recently spoiled the May vacation for a huge amount of tourists.
Sakura-Jima, Japan
The volcano on the island of Kyushu is casting regularly since 1955. It is located in a very heavily populated area of the country, and therefore is considered to be one of the most dangerous in the world, it is even called ” Oriental Vesuvius”. Kagoshima City, home to 700,000 residents, is located just a few kilometers from the mountain. That’s the main reason why the government designed a program with the help of which special shelters were built here, where people can shelter from the falling debris. Last eruption was in March 2009: at that time the ashes spread over a couple of kilometers.
Etna, Italy
This is the highest and most active volcano in the European territory. Potentially, it constitutes a serious threat to people living in villages and towns of the whole island of Sicily. Most terrible eruption occurred in 1669, when lava destroyed several villages in the vicinity and the “absorb” part of Catania – the ancient city on the eastern coast of Sicily. In 1992, two streams of lava threatened the whole municipality with a population of about 8000 people. And only a year ago the volcano started to cast even more intensively.
Vesuvius, Italy
On the beautiful coast of Naples lies a terrible volcano, which had once demonstrated all of its destructive force when destroying the whole population of the town. In the I century BC powerful eruption destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing about 25,000 people. Today, the giant is dangerous not only because 3 million Italians live in the vicinity of the volcano, but also because of the fact that it remains silent for too long already. And scientists believe that the more time it takes the rest, the stronger will be the imminent eruption. The historians even believe that during the last disasters the entire southern part of Europe was covered with ashes.
Merapi, Indonesia
This “mountain of fire” is most dangerous volcano in Indonesia, erupting regularly, about once in ten years. Since the XVI century, it is constantly killing people, villagers in the vicinity. In close proximity to it is the city of Yogyakarta, and some villages are located even on its slopes – at a height of 1700 meters. In 2006, about 5000 people were killed and 200,000 were left homeless. It’s quite interesting why the villagers are staying so close to the mountain as the disaster abilities are obvious? While anyways this is not the most dangerous volcano for Indonesia.
Papandayan, Indonesia
This volcano located on the Indonesian island of Java represents a serious threat to a large amount of territory. In 1772, it has completely destroyed 40 villages, situated on its slopes, more than 3000 local residents were killed. The volcano is still considered very dangerous and settling in the vicinity of it is not recommended and even there are some charges for it. After all, emissions of smoke, earthquakes and minor eruptions occured in 1923 and 1942, and in 2002 recorded quite strong aftershocks.
Nyiragongo, Congo
This is probably the most hazardous of the African volcanoes. Nowhere else on earth the volcano appeared to have such huge lakes and rivers of lava. In 1977, the current lava killed 100 people, although, according to some sources, the number of victims has reached thousands. In 2002, another eruption of the giant has resulted in the city of Goma, at least 45 people died, 15% of buildings were destroyed and 120 000 residents were left homeless.
Popocatepetl, Mexico
A total of 70 km from Mexico City is hiding a born killer under a glacier. Rising to 5400 meters above the sea level, it represents a serious threat not only to the capital (where some 9 million people live), but also for numerous other towns and villages located nearby. This is the most ruthless of the 20 other huge volcanoes of Mexico. In 2000, tens of thousands of people were evacuated, and its eruption has caused even the melting of the glaciers. The locals believe that the volcano eruptions are the demonstration of the gods’ anger. Thus the only thing that can prevent volcano eruption is to behave properly.
Teide, Spain
The third largest volcano in the world is located in the paradise of Tenerife, on one of the Canary Islands. And although it is currently inactive, in the near future, the risk of eruption of this mountain is very high, and then its destructive power can be compared with Vesuvius. International Association of volcanologists called it one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. When the main reasons for such a conclusion might be too scientific, still it’s consideration is in our legitimacy.
Sierra Negra, Galapagos Islands
One of the largest volcanoes in the Galapagos archipelago, Sierra Negra last erupted in 2005. The Galapagos Islands are considered by scientists of one of the most active volcanic regions of the world. Over the past 200 years there were recorded more than 50 eruptions. So this unique nature reserve is regularly under threat of destruction which leads to the idea that nothing can be judged by the first impression. It is especially true when talking about the natural beauties.
Yellowstone, Wyoming, USA
Although the last eruption of this volcano occurred about 640,000 years ago, the area of hydrothermal geysers that spit on the surface of the hot jet and the mud is considered potentially dangerous for the US. Volcanologists say that if the volcano will erupt, this will lead to the catastrophic consequences for a large part of the United States and Canada. However, experts predict that this will not happen even in 90000 years.
Let’s hope that no matter of such a huge amount of active volcanoes we will not face any great eruptions in near future.
