what are the top 5 most destructive volcanic eruptions?
139353
Krakatoa, Mt. St. Helens, Vesuvius, and I'm lost.  It's an interesting question, though, because some of them are probably long ago enough that the destruction was of landscape but not human artifacts.  So "most destructive" gets kind of hard to define.  The earth suffered such huge volcanic eruptions in the distant past that they are only detected by satellite photos which show the remnants under more recent developments.  Or to go further, there have been huge volcanos detected on other heavenly bodies. (At least Mars, and probably Venus as well.  The moon?)\n\nAnd what of Atlantis . . .?
446778
1 (People see the volcano with some smoke over it)\n2 (they do not believe their eyes, "Wow, let's come a bit closer and watch the fire"  - they say)\n3 (The top of volcano collapses down)\n4 (A large opening is proclused)\n5 (Magma forced upward earth's surface)\n6 (Poor people, they were too curious)
498121
1. epicenter\n2. fault\n3.lava\n4.pumice\n5.rope
409467
here are whole bunch of important info\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilauea\n\na vedio of lava flowing\nhttp://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/volcanoes/assets/multimedia/kilauea.mov?mii=1
1070105
Mt. Etna's eruptions, while obscuring visibility in the area surrounding the volcano, were captured by cameras on board the Terra and SeaWiFs satellites in recent days.\n\nThe eruption opened six vents in the mountain, releasing a cloud of ash stretching southeastward over the Mediterranean Sea, though the volatile mountain's lava flows have appeared to slowed.\n\nA new fissure cracked open at a height of 2,700 yards (2,470 meters) on the eastern side of the volcano, officials told Reuters on Tuesday, weakening the main lava flow that threatened the village of Nicolosi, a community of 5,000 people. \n\nThe magma pouring out of the new fissure, one of a half-dozen that have burst open on the almost 11,000-foot (3,350-meter) mountain, was heading toward the uninhabited Valle del Bove valley. \n\n"There are very slight signals that the eruption activity is diminishing. I am cautiously optimistic,'' said Alberto Di Pace, prefect of Catania, a city at the base of the volcano. \n\nBut experts say the volcano is highly unpredictable, making it extremely difficult to tell whether the eruptions will stop soon. In the past 20 days there have been more than 2,500 tremors under the mountain, with no signs of any let-up. \n\nCatania's international airport, which was shut for a second time on Monday as thick layers of volcanic ash covered the runway, was re-opened at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday. \n\nFor a week, Europe's most active volcano has been billowing huge clouds of smoke and black ash, and spitting rivers of lava, leading the government to declare a state of emergency. \n\nThe lava flow approaching Nicolosi has almost stopped as it pools in a shallow basin some 2.5 miles above the village. \n\nOn Sunday, the community organized a religious procession to pray that the flow be diverted or stopped. \n\nLegend has it that in 1886 the local archbishop managed to divert a wave of boiling magma descending on the village by brandishing before it a statue of Saint Anthony. \n\nThe magma has already damaged ski lifts dotting the volcano's slopes and civil protection teams were trying to save the ones left intact. \n\nMount Etna is a popular winter resort, but tourism officials say snow is unlikely to settle this winter because of the extreme heat of the lava. \n\nThe last time Etna posed a threat was in 1992 when lava streams headed toward Zafferana, a town of 7,000 people on Etna's lower slopes. The Italian military had to use controlled explosions to divert the flow.
250076
There have been several significant and catastrophic eruptions of Krakatau.\n\nThe 1883 eruption produced a tsunami that reached 140 ft (40 m) in height and killed over 34,000 people. On the Volcanic Explosivity Index (similar to Richter scale in that it is logarithmic) the eruption is rated as a VEI 6 (very large). There was a bulk volume of material erupted of 4 cubic miles (16.7 cubic km). Eruption height reached past 80,000 feet, and the ash thickness at ten miles distance was 10 feet. At 300 miles distance the ash fall was still 1 inch thick. \n\nThe eruption was preceded by 5-6 years of seismic activity in Sumatra, and 3 years of seismic activity that was felt in northern Australia. A small eruption began about 3 months before the explosive eruption took place. \n\nAnak Krakatau has been growing within the caldera since 1927. It currently has built a summit at least 2,667 feet (813 m) above the sea and is very active. \n\nAn earlier eruption that may have taken place in the 6th century AD may have been even more catastrophic. Author David Keys together with Ken Wohletz at Los Alamos Lab have suggested that a large volcanic eruption near Krakatau might have caused the Dark Ages.\n\nI quote:\n"climate destabilization brought on by a natural catastrophe, with strong evidence from tree-ring and ice-core data that it occurred in 535 AD"\nFurther effects such as:\n"notably colder and drier weather in Europe and Asia, where descriptions of months with diminished sun light, persistent cold, and anomalous summer snow falls are recorded in 6th-century written accounts. Writings from China and Indonesia describe rare atmospheric phenomena that possibly point to a volcano in the Indonesian arc. Although radiocarbon dating of eruptions in that part of the world are spotty, there is strong bathymetric and volcanic evidence that Krakatau might have experienced a huge caldera eruption"\n\nField expeditions to the area found evidence of a 40-60 km caldera, which would have ejected many times more material than the 1815 eruption of Tambora, and many times more than the 1883 eruption of Krakatau. \n\nThe book by Keys, "Catastrophe: An Investigation in the Origins of the Modern World" and the website by Wohletz are very interesting reading on this subject.\nhttp://www.ees1.lanl.gov/wohletz/krakata...
660018
Different kinds of volcanos.. Shield, cone etc.\nJust the way the lavva flows out and the ash spits up./
543189
High pressure builds up inside the magma chamber due to gases & the actual heat inside.\n\nComposite volcanoes usually are the worst for explosive eruptions b/c of the amount of trapped gases that build up. They erupt lava that is high in silica which also makes it thick. This combination usually leads to deadly pyroclastic flows.
467979
1.  9/11 obviously is top of the list.\n2.  Wars in Afgan. and Iraq\n3.  Natural disasters - Hurricanes and Tsunami\n4.  Passing of Pope John Paul\n5.  Y2K.....haha.  Remember that non-event?
1091303
1854 does sound about right; see source below.  Basically it hasn't had anything substantial for a while; the last eruption before 1854 seems to be over 2,000 years ago.
825938
I believe the most recent volcano - is 14 November 2006 at Home Reef, Tonga Island, Tonga.\n\nPumice rafts originally reported to have been from Metis Shoal are now confirmed to have originated from an island-building eruption of the submarine Home Reef volcano. On 12 August, possibly four days after the beginning of the eruption, a sailor spotted the new island after encountering pumice rafts the previous day. The encounter was written in an on-line journal that described the island as four-peaked. A central crater produced steam plumes and occasional bursts of tephra. Data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite showed that sulfur dioxide emissions from the Home Reef area began on 8 August, peaked during 8-9 August, and ceased on 15 August. Based on ASTER satellite imagery from 4 October, the island was an estimated 1 km long with an area of 0.23 square km. The temperature of a small lake on the island was 64.7?C. The island was 0.15 square km, based on ASTER imagery from 12 October. Geologic Summary: Home Reef, a submarine volcano midway between Metis Shoal and Late Island in the central Tonga islands, was first reported active in the mid-19th century, when an ephemeral island formed. An eruption in 1984 produced a 12-km-high eruption plume, copious amounts of floating pumice, and an ephemeral island 500 x 1500 m wide, with cliffs 30-50 m high that enclosed a water-filled crater. \n\nI hope the above is the right answer you are looking for.
7373
There are three types of lava and lava flows: pillow, pahoehoe, and aa. Pillow lavas are volumetrically the most abundant type because they are erupted at ocean ridges and because they make up the submarine portion of seamounts and large intraplate volcanoes, like the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain. Pahoehoe is the second most abundant type of lava flow.\n\nEruptions under water or ice make pillow lava. Pillow lavas have elongate, interconnected flow lobes that are elliptical or circular in cross-section. \n\n"Pahoehoe" and "aa" are Hawaiian words that describe lava. Pahoehoe lava is characterized by a smooth, billowy, or ropy surface. Pahoehoe flows tend to be relatively thin, from a few inches to a few feet thick. In map-view the flows tend to be narrow and elongate. \n\n    Aa is characterized by a rough, jagged, spinose, and generally clinkery surface. Aa lava flows tend to be relatively thick compared to pahoehoe flows. During the early episodes of the current eruption of Kilauea volcano, aa flows up to 36 feet (11 m) thick surged through the Royal Gardens subdivision at rates as great as 108 ft/min (33 m/min). Pictures in Hawaiian Tour Guide illustrate many of the points noted above.\n\nAll volcanic eruptions produce lava. The lava can take one of two forms: lava flows or pyroclastics. We already described lava flows. Pyroclastics are pieces of lava explosively thrown out of a volcano by the expansion of gas bubbles. Pyroclasts can take many forms depending on the violence of the eruption, type of eruption, and composition of magma/lava. Two types of pyroclasts that I'm sure you are familiar with are ash and cinders. Ash is produced by very violent eruptions that fragment the lava into pieces smaller than 2 mm (0.08 inch). An excellent example of an ash producing eruption is the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens. Cinders are pieces of fragmented lava in the size range of 2-64 mm (0.08-2.56 inches). A good example of an eruption that produced a cinder cone is Paricutin in central Mexico.\n\nLava and pyroclasts have a variety of uses including building or ornamental stone and road material. Volcanic rocks also make an excellent substrate for agriculture.
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All fragments thrown into the air by a volcanic eruption are called pyroclastics. During a more violent eruption, the force of the blast sends superhot gas and millions of pieces of lava into the air. These particles are classified as bombs, cinders, or ash, depending on their size and shape. Small pieces of lava, which solidify almost immediately, form slivers of volcanic glass.\nTogether with rocks blown from the sides of a volcano, the entire collection of ejected material becomes a hot, fast-moving cloud of rock and ash. These flows can travel at great speed down the flanks of a volcano and into surrounding areas, causing extensive destruction. In 1902 the eruption of Mount Pelée, on the island of Martinique, created this type of pyroclastic blast and destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing about 30,000 people.\n\nLike lava, pyroclastic material raining down on a volcano eventually compacts into solid layers that build up the volcano’s bulk. Some eruptions actually reduce the height of a volcano, because they are so powerful that they literally blow the top of the volcano off. In 1883 the cataclysmic explosion of Krakatau in Indonesia destroyed most of the island, which had been formed by the volcano.\n\n\nKrakatau 1883\nDestroyed entire island\nPumice Rafts (lava with lots of vesicles) trapped sailors for three days\nCaused Tsunami\nHeard as far as Australia
579528
famous 1902 volcanic eruption, most of the damage i seem to remeber being caused by a pyroclastic flow, killed about 27,000 people. I'm not sure if that is a myth or not!
834976
My guess is dissipation, hydrothermal, volcanic. Just guessing.
220468
The most recent eruption of Fuji (a composite volcano) was in 1707 and contained large amounts of pyroclastic fall. In studies it was determined that, "The magma composition of the eruption varied from beginning to the end of the eruption." a breakdown of the composition is found in this paper online:\n\nMiyaji, Naomichi. The 1707 Eruption of Mt. Fuji Volcano and its Tephra\nhttp://www.airies.or.jp/publication/ger/pdf/06-2-05.pdf\n\nNote: Mt. Fuji is only dormant and may erupt at any time.
690677
I'd have to agree with Kidd - the largest major city at immediate risk from volcanic eruption would be Naples in Italy.  But similarly, those mentioned in Washington are also at risk from the Cascade volcanoes - not so much from eruption eject but from mudflows (lahars).  I'm sure there are some major cities in Indonesia that are near major volcanoes, and those cities are also at great risk, as are most Japaneese cities.