In a volcanic eruption, lava, volcanic bombs, ash, and various gases are expelled from a volcanic vent and fissure. While many eruptions only pose dangers to the immediately surrounding area, Earth's largest eruptions can have a major regional or even global impact, with some affecting the climate and contributing to mass extinctions.[1][2] Volcanic eruptions can generally be characterized as either explosive eruptions, sudden ejections of rock and ash, or effusive eruptions, relatively gentle outpourings of lava.[3] A separate list is given below for each type.
There have probably been many such eruptions during Earth's history beyond those shown in these lists. However erosion and plate tectonics have taken their toll, and many eruptions have not left enough evidence for geologists to establish their size. Even for the eruptions listed here, estimates of the volume erupted can be subject to considerable uncertainty.[4]
In explosive eruptions, the eruption of magma is driven by the rapid release of pressure, often involving the explosion of gas previously dissolved within the material. The most famous and destructive historical eruptions are mainly of this type. An eruptive phase can consist of a single eruption, or a sequence of several eruptions spread over several days, weeks or months. Explosive eruptions usually involve thick, highly viscous, silicic or felsic magma, high in volatiles like water vapor and carbon dioxide. Pyroclastic materials are the primary product, typically in the form of tuff. Eruptions the size of that at Lake Toba 74,000 years ago, at least 2,800 cubic kilometres (670 cu mi), or the Yellowstone eruption 620,000 years ago, around 1,000 cubic kilometres (240 cu mi), occur worldwide every 50,000 to 100,000 years.[1][n 1]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
One of the largest and oldest supereruptions. Existence as a single eruption is controversial. Possibly a multiple 2,000+ km3 event under a million years.
Goboboseb–Messum volcanic centre—Springbok quartz latite unit
132
Paraná and Etendeka traps, Brazil and Namibia
6,340
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
The nature of eruption is disputed. Paraná Province suggests an effusive origin from local sources.[6][7] No ashfall deposits have been found, and the erupted volume could be 2-3 times larger than listed if any ashfall deposits are found.[4]
Effusive eruptions involve a relatively gentle, steady outpouring of lava rather than large explosions. They can continue for years or decades, producing extensive fluid maficlava flows.[43] For example, Kīlauea on Hawaiʻi continuously erupted from 1983 to 2018, producing 2.7 km3 (1 cu mi) of lava covering more than 100 km2 (40 sq mi).[44] Despite their ostensibly benign appearance, effusive eruptions can be as dangerous as explosive ones: one of the largest effusive eruptions in history occurred in Iceland during the 1783–1784 eruption of Laki, which produced about 15 km3 (4 cu mi) of lava and killed one fifth of Iceland's population.[43] The ensuing disruptions to the climate may also have killed millions elsewhere.[45] Still larger were the Icelandic eruptions of Katla (the Eldgjá eruption) circa 934, with 18 km3 (4 cu mi) of erupted lava, and the Þjórsárhraun eruption of Bárðarbunga circa 6700 BCE, with 25 km3 (6 cu mi) lava erupted, the latter being the largest effusive eruption in the last 10,000 years.[46] The lava fields of these eruptions measure 565 km2 (Laki), 700 km2 (Eldgjá) and 950 km2 (Þjórsárhraun).
Highly active periods of volcanism in what are called large igneous provinces have produced huge oceanic plateaus and flood basalts in the past. These can comprise hundreds of large eruptions, producing millions of cubic kilometers of lava in total. No large eruptions of flood basalts have occurred in human history, the most recent having occurred over 10 million years ago. They are often associated with breakup of supercontinents such as Pangea in the geologic record,[48] and may have contributed to a number of mass extinctions. Most large igneous provinces have either not been studied thoroughly enough to establish the size of their component eruptions, or are not preserved well enough to make this possible. Many of the eruptions listed above thus come from just two large igneous provinces: the Paraná and Etendeka traps and the Columbia River Basalt Group. The latter is the most recent large igneous province, and also one of the smallest.[45] A list of large igneous provinces follows to provide some indication of how many large eruptions may be missing from the lists given here.
Largest igneous body on Earth, later split into three widely separated oceanic plateaus, with a fourth component perhaps now accreted onto South America. Possibly linked to the Louisville hotspot.
Linked to the Kerguelen hotspot. Volume includes Broken Ridge and the Southern and Central Kerguelen Plateau (produced 120–95 Ma), but not the Northern Kerguelen Plateau (produced after 40 Ma).
Southwest United States: mainly in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico
5.5
Mostly andesite to rhyolite explosive (.5 million km3) to effusive (5 million km3) eruptions, 25–40 Ma. Includes many volcanic centers, including the San Juan volcanic field.
^Certain felsic provinces, such as the Chon Aike province in Argentina and the Whitsunday igneous province of Australia, are not included in this list because they are composed of many separate eruptions that have not been distinguished.
^Dates are an average of the range of dates of volcanics.
^These volumes are estimated total volumes of tephra ejected. If the available sources only report a dense rock equivalent volume, the number is italicized but not converted into a tephra volume.
^Also the site of 972 and 943 km3 (233 and 226 cu mi) eruptions.
^ abThis is the volume of crustal thickening, so the figure includes intrusive as well as extrusive deposits.
^Actually several provinces, ranging in size from 1.5 to 6.6 million km3
^ abIngrid Ukstins Peate; Joel A. Baker; Mohamed Al-Kadasi; Abdulkarim Al-Subbary; Kim B. Knight; Peter Riisager; Matthew F. Thirlwall; David W. Peate; Paul R. Renne; Martin A. Menzies (2005). "Volcanic stratigraphy of large-volume silicic pyroclastic eruptions during Oligocene Afro-Arabian flood volcanism in Yemen". Bulletin of Volcanology. 68 (2). Springer: 135–156. Bibcode:2005BVol...68..135P. doi:10.1007/s00445-005-0428-4. S2CID140160158.
^Best, Myron G.; Scott R. B.; Rowley P. D.; Swadley W. C.; Anderson R. E.; Grommé C. S.; Harding A. E.; Deino A. L.; Christiansen E. H.; Tingey D. G.; Sullivan K. R. (1993). "Oligocene–Miocene caldera complexes, ash-flow sheets, and tectonism in the central and southeastern Great Basin". Field Trip Guidebook for Cordilleran/Rocky Mountain Sections of the Geological Society of America. Crustal Evolution of the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada: 285–312.
^Goodwin, Anna; Wyles, Jon & Morley, Alex (2001). "The Siberian Traps". Palaeobiology and Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. Archived from the original on 11 August 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2010.