Here are 24 interesting Volcano facts.
1-5 Volcano Facts
1. Glass fiber can be produced from a volcano. Pele’s hair, named after the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, is a glass fiber formed through the stretching of molten basaltic glass from lava. – Source
2. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also caused volcanoes to erupt everywhere, acid rain which burned flesh and vegetation, a sulfuric gas that blocked out sunlight for years, vaporized rocks as deep as the sea floor, and mega tsunamis up to 2 miles (3.22km) high. – Source
3. The largest volcano on Earth is named Tamu Massif. Located at the bottom of the Pacific ocean it has a surface area the same as New Mexico making it one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. – Source
4. Eight new islands have formed across our planet since 2010 due to underwater volcanoes eruptions and glacial retreats. Populations of many wild animals, including insects, birds, rats, and even monitor lizards have now settled on them. – Source
5. People work surrounded by sulfuric clouds of gas inside the caldera of an active volcano for as little as $11 a day mining sulfur at great risk to their respiratory health & Safety for the purpose of bleaching sugar white. – Source
6-10 Volcano Facts
6. Japan has over 100 active volcanoes, about 10% of all the world’s active volcanoes. – Source
7. Laki is one of the deadliest volcanoes in the world. It erupted in 1783 which caused famine and killed 25% of Iceland’s population, it also caused a drop in global temperature which resulted in crop failures in Europe and droughts in India. It estimated to kill over 6 million people globally. – Source
8. One of Hawaii’s five active volcanoes, Kilauea, has been continuously spewing lava since 1983. It is the longest-lived volcanic eruption anywhere on Earth. – Source
9. The Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia has so much sulfur its flames burn blue. – Source
10. Volcanoes can produce lightning all on their own. – Source
11-15 Volcano Facts
11. There are ice volcanoes on other planets and moons like Titan that, instead of lava, erupts deadly hydrogen cyanide – a product of methane and ammonia plumes. – Source
12. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has volcanoes. “The last well-documented eruption in Saudi Arabia occurred in the northern end of Harrat Rahat near Al-Madinah in 1256 AD / 654 AH, continued for 52 days, and the lava flows reached to within 12 km [7.4565 miles] of the city before activity ceased.” – Source
13. Volcanoes can be harnessed as an energy source. – Source
14. There are over 50 volcanoes in Auckland, New Zealand. – Source
15. There were active volcanoes on the moon when dinosaurs roamed the earth. – Source
16-20 Volcano Facts
16. Continuously erupting volcanoes are referred to as Strombolian eruptions. Mount Stromboli itself has been erupting continuously for over two thousand years. – Source
17. Over the past 500 years, Iceland’s volcanoes have erupted a third of the total global lava output. – Source
18. The Sahara Desert used to have active volcanoes. – Source
19. In order for magma to form, water must be added in order to decrease the melting point of the rock, thus many volcanoes being along plate faults. – Source
20. There are volcanoes that erupt black/silver lava. – Source
21-24 Volcano Facts
21. There are multiple active volcanoes in Antarctica. – Source
22. We can’t dispose of nuclear waste in volcanoes because they aren’t hot enough to split uranium’s atomic nuclei and make it’s radioactivity inert. – Source
23. The Izu Islands in Japan require its inhabitants to carry gas masks at all times due to the poisonous gasses released from volcanoes there. – Source
24. Western Australia does not have any volcanoes due to the fact that it is situated directly on top of a tectonic plate. – Source
Mt. Stromoli has been erupting for 2000 years, but a volcano in Hawaii that’s been erupting since the 1800’s is the longest erupting volcano in the world.