By Erik Klemetti
I know you’ve all seen lists like this before: what is the “world’s most dangerous volcano?” Most of the time, that discuss devolves quickly into something about “supervolcanoes,” which is very exciting and all because they can generate massive eruptions. However, they are far from being the “most dangerous” volcano.
But wait, what does “most dangerous” even mean for volcanoes? Are you talking about a volcano that is most active? That would be Kilauea in Hawaii and that’s far from “most dangerous”. What about the biggest volcano? That’s hard to quantify, but maybe it would be Yellowstone … and you’ll see why it is definitely not the “most dangerous.” What about largest eruption? Even that isn’t the best measure of “most dangerous” because some very large eruptions have been in the middle of nowhere.
So, what would I consider “most dangerous?” It comes down to a few key factors:
- What is the volcano’s eruptive history?
- How many people live close to the volcano?
- How closely is the volcano being monitored?
- How well prepared is the area for a major disaster?
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