Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Enshunada Sea, Japan (1498)
Nankaido, Japan (1707)
Lisbon, Portugal (1755)
Ryuku Islands, Japan (1771)
Northern Chile (1868)
Krakatoa, Indonesia (1883)
Sanriku, Japan (1896)
Less frequent and generally less catastrophic are tsunamis that often accompany a major earthquake or
volcanic eruption.
Put simply, a volcano is an opening or vent in the earth's crust, either under the sea or on land, through
which rock fragments, gases, ashes, and lava, or molten rock, erupt and are ejected from the earth's interior.
There are basically three types of volcanoes; extinct, dormant, and active. The latter two can be incredibly
dramatic and destructive while acting as one of the agents of the earth's continual process of destruction
and re-creation.
What Is the Ring of Fire?
There are about six hundred active volcanoes on the face of the earth. About half of them range along a
belt of active volcanoes running from the southern tip of South America north to Alaska, then west to Asia,
and south through Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and New Zealand. This is the “Ring of Fire,” marking
the boundary where the plates that cradle the Pacific Ocean meet those plates that hold the continents sur-
rounding the ocean.
Major Volcanic Eruptions in History
c. 1480
BC
—Thera (or Santorini)
Located near Crete, in the Mediterranean, this eruption was one
of the earliest of recorded volcanoes. Thera was an island outpost of the Minoan civilization (see
Chapter 1, “Imaginary Places: Was There an Atlantis?”). The eruption collapsed the island of Thera
and sent out a tsunami that probably destroyed much of Crete's economy, leading to the demise of
the great Minoan civilization.
AD
79, August 24—Italy
One of history's most notorious disasters, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing more than 16,000 residents, who had
no chance to escape and died of suffocation. For eight days the black cloud spread over Italy, block-
ing out the sun as hot rocks and ash fell to the ground in a thick blanket. Located near Naples, Mount
Vesuvius is mainland Europe's only active volcano, and it subsequently erupted in
1631
, killing
18,000,
1906
,
1929
, and most recently in
1944
, during World War II.
1169—Sicily
The island volcano Mount Etna, the highest European volcano, which had erupted
many times before, killed about 15,000 people. Another eruption of Mount Etna again killed about
15,000 people in
1669
. Later major eruptions occurred in
1853
and
1928
.
1815, April-July—Indonesia
Mount Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa, erupted in one of the
largest volcanic blasts ever recorded, darkening the sky at noon with ash from numerous huge ex-
