Types and Effects of Volcano Hazards

Many kinds of volcanic activity can

endanger the lives of people and property
both close to and far away from a
volcano. Most of the activity involves the
explosive ejection or flowage of rock
fragments and molten rock in various
combinations of hot or cold, wet or dry,
and fast or slow. Some hazards are more
severe than others depending on the size
and extent of the event taking place and
whether people or property are in the way.
And although most volcano hazards are
triggered directly by an eruption, some
occur when a volcano is quiet.

Case studies of volcanic activity listed

by country or region, volcano, year, and
type of hazard.

| Gas | Lahars | Landslides | Lava Flows | Pyroclastic Flows | Tephra |

Volcanic eruptions are one of Earth's most dramatic and violent agents of change. Not
only can powerful explosive eruptions drastically alter land and water for tens of
kilometers around a volcano, but tiny liquid droplets of sulfuric acid erupted into the
stratosphere can change our planet's climate temporarily. Eruptions often force people
living near volcanoes to abandon their land and homes, sometimes forever. Those living
farther away are likely to avoid complete destruction, but their cities and towns, crops,
industrial plants, transportation systems, and electrical grids can still be damaged by
tephra, lahars, and flooding.

Volcanic activity since 1700 A.D. has killed more than 260,000 people, destroyed entire
cities and forests, and severely disrupted local economies for months to years. Even with
our improved ability to identify hazardous areas and warn of impending eruptions,
increasing numbers of people face certain danger. Scientists have estimated that by the
year 2000, the population at risk from volcanoes is likely to increase to at least 500
million, which is comparable to the entire world's population at the beginning of the
seventeenth century! Clearly, scientists face a formidable challenge in providing reliable
and timely warnings of eruptions to so many people at risk.

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Historical volcanic disasters since A.D. 1700 that killed more than 300 people

Selected Case Studies: hazardous volcanic activity

Volcano
Pyroclastic
Date Gas Lahars Landslides Lava flows Tephra
flows

United States

Mount St. Helens, Washington

Pyroclastic
1980 May 18 Lahars Landslides Tephra
flows
Pyroclastic
1980 July 22
flows

Mount Rainier, Washington

Lahars
1989-1990 Landslides
&

Redoubt Volcano, Alaska

1989-1990 Lahars

Kilauea Volcano, Hawai`i

Lava
1960
flows
Lava
1986-present Gas
flows
Lava
1990 Mar-Dec
flows

Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawai`i

Lava
1950
flows
Lava
1984
flows

Long Valley Caldera, California

1986-present Gas

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Caribbean

Soufriere Hills, Montserrat

Pyroclastic
1997 June 25
flows

Central-South
America

Nevada del Ruiz, Colombia

1985 Nov 13 Lahars

Huila Volcano, Colombia

Lahars
1994 Jun 6 Landslides
&

Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala

1989 Aug 14 Lahars

Casita Volcano, Nicaragua

Lahars
1998 Oct 30 Landslides
&

Japan

Unzen Volcano
Pyroclastic
1991-1995
flows

Philippines

Mount Pinatubo
1991 Lahars
1994 Lahars

Location of Hazards Posed by Volcanoes

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 | Around the Globe | At U.S. Volcanoes |

Examples of a few volcano hazards near erupting volcanoes: lahars, lava

flows, pyroclastic flows, tephra, volcanic gases

Illustration by B. Myers
Volcanoes generate a wide range of activity that can affect the surrounding land, river
valleys, and communities in different ways. Depending on the type, size, and duration of the
eruptive activity, hazardous areas might exist only within a few kilometers of a volcano or
extend to areas more than a hundred of kilometers from an active vent. We can identify areas
most likely to be affected in the future by volcano hazards--lahars, lava flows, landslides,
pyroclastic flows, tephra, and volcanic gases--through a detailed study of a volcano's natural
history.

By knowing the distance that previous types of activity spread from a volcano and the
present landscape, and learning from the effects of historical eruptions, we can identify
hazardous zones around a volcano.

Volcano Hazard Areas Around the Globe

In order to determine the general location of volcano hazard areas on Earth, we first need to
know where the world's most active volcanoes are concentrated. Active volcanoes are not
randomly distributed over the Earth's surface. Instead, they tend to be located in linear
volcanic mountain chains thousands of kilometers long on the edges of continents, in the
middle of oceans, or as island chains. The locations of these volcanic chains are closely
related to the way in which Earth's crust is divided into more than a dozen enormous
sections or "plates" and how the plates move relative to one another according to the theory
of plate tectonics.
According to the theory of plate tectonics, these rigid plates,
whose average thickness is about 80 km, move in slow motion on
top of the Earth's hot, pliable interior. Most of Earth's active
volcanoes are located along the boundaries of these massive plates
where they spread apart or collide. But some of the world's most
active volcanoes, like Kilauea Volcano on the Island of Hawai`i,

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 Volcano forms along a
are found in the middle of these massive plates above hot spots in
collision or subducting
plate boundary the Earth's interior.

More about the Theory of Plate Tectonics and location of volcanoes

This Dynamic Earth: the Story of Plate Tectonics,

an illustrated booklet about plate tectonics available online
from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Volcanoes and Plate Boundaries

How do the motions of the Earth's plates relate to volcanoes?
The Pacific Ring of Fire contains two-thirds of the Earth's volcanoes.
Illustration of the Earth's plate boundaries and location of volcanoes.

Hot Spots
How do volcanoes that form in the middle of plates fit into the plate-
tectonics picture?
Earth's longest chain of "hot spot" volcanoes is the Hawaiian Ridge-
Emporer Seamounts chain.

Map of Earth's prominent hot spots show volcanoes located in the middle
of tectonic plates and along spreading centers.

Hazards at Specific Volcanoes in the United States

More than 50 volcanoes have erupted one or more times times in the past few hundred
years in Alaska, Hawai`i, Washington, Oregon, and California. As part of our legislated
responsibility to issue warnings of hazardous volcanic activity in the United States, we have
identified volcano-hazard zones around many active and potentially active volcanoes. Our
volcano-hazard assessments are based on the assumption that the same general areas around
a volcano are likely to be affected by future volcanic activity of the same type and at about
the same average frequency as in the past. Through detailed geologic mapping of the type
and size of past eruptions, we estimate the areas most likely to be affected by similar events
in the future.
Long Valley Caldera, California
Volcano-hazard zones in the Long Valley area
Long-term outlook for volcanic activity
Map and diagram summarizing eruptions of the past 5,000
years?
USGS response plan for volcanic unrest in the Long Valley

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 area

Volcanoes in Washington, Oregon, and California

Volcano-Hazard Assessments for Cascade Range volcanoes
(new and revised assessments)

Alaska
Volcano-Hazard Assessments for Alaskan volcanoes (PDF)

Hawai`i

Volcano and Earthquake Hazards on the Island of Hawai`i

Overview of lava-flow hazards on Mauna Loa Volcano

Summary of hazards where lava enters the sea

Lava Flows and Their Effects

What are Lava Flows?

Lava flows are streams of molten rock that pour or ooze from an
erupting vent. Lava is erupted during either nonexplosive activity
or explosive lava fountains. Lava flows destroy everything in their
path, but most move slowly enough that people can move out of
the way. The speed at which lava moves across the ground
depends on several factors, including (1) type of lava erupted and
Fluid basalt lava flow, its viscosity; (2) steepness of the ground over which it travels; (3)
Mauna Loa, Hawai`i

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 whether the lava flows as a broad sheet, through a confined
channel, or down a lava tube; and (4) rate of lava production at the
vent.

Fluid basalt flows can extend tens of kilometers from an erupting

vent. The leading edges of basalt flows can travel as fast as 10
km/hour on steep slopes but they typically advance less than 1
km/hour on gentle slopes. But when basalt lava flows are confined
within a channel or lava tube on a steep slope, the main body of
the flow can reach velocities >30 km/hour.

Viscous dacite lava Viscous andesite flows move only a few kilometers per hour and
dome, Unzen Volcano, rarely extend more than 8 km from their vents. Viscous dacite and
Japan rhyolite flows often form steep-sided mounds called lava domes
over an erupting vent. Lava domes often grow by the extrusion of
many individual flows >30 m thick over a period of several
months or years. Such flows will overlap one another and
typically move less than a few meters per hour.

Effects of Lava Flows

Everything in the path of an

Photograph by J.D. Griggs in 1984
`A`a lava flow moves through an intersection in the
Royal Garderns subdivision on the south flank of
Kilauea Volcano, Hawai`i.
advancing lava flow will be
knocked over, surrounded, or
buried by lava, or ignited by the
extremely hot temperature of
lava. When lava erupts beneath a
glacier or flows over snow and
ice, meltwater from the ice and
snow can result in far-reaching
lahars. If lava enters a body of
water or water enters a lava tube,
the water may boil violently and
cause an explosive shower of
molten spatter over a wide area.
Methane gas, produced as lava
buries vegetation, can migrate in
subsurface voids and explode
when heated. Thick viscous lava
flows, especially those that build
a dome, can collapse to form

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 fast-moving pyroclastic flows.

Lava buries or Intense heat of lava Lava melts snow and ice Collapsing lava flows
surrounds everything... melts or burns... to form jkulhlaups and trigger pyroclastic
lahars... flows...

Deaths caused directly by lava flows are uncommon because most move slowly enough
that people can move out the way easily and flows usually don't travel far from the vent.
Death and injury can result when onlookers approach an advancing lava flow too closely
or their retreat is cut off by other flows. Deaths attributed to lava flows are often due to
related causes, such as explosions when lava interacts with water, the collapse of an
active lava delta, asphyxiation due to accompanying toxic gases, pyroclastic flows from a
collapsing dome, and lahars from meltwater.

Other natural phenomena such as hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunami, fires, and earthquakes
often destroy buildings, agricultural crops, and homes, but the owner(s) can usually
rebuild or repair structures and their businesses in the same location. Lava flows,
however, can bury homes and agricultural land under tens of meters of hardened black
rock; landmarks and property lines become obscured by a vast, new hummocky
landscape. People are rarely able to use land buried by lava flows or sell it for more than
a small fraction of its previous worth.

More information about lava flows

Features, characteristics, and types of flows

Terms listed in our photoglossary

Kilauea Volcano, Hawai`i

Hazardous activity where lava enters the ocean

Collapse of new land into the sea

Explosions at edge of active lava delta
Hot ocean waves
Kalapana covered by flows, 1990
Kaphoho covered by flows, 1960

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Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawai`i

Summary of the 1984 eruption that threatened Hilo, Hawai`i

Large 1950 eruption sent lava into sea in less than 4 hours

Photo glossary of volcano terms

Methane explosion
Sudden explosions of methane gas
occur frequently near the edges of
active lava flows. Methane gas is
generated when vegetation is
covered and heated by molten lava.
The explosive gas travels beneath
the ground through cracks and fills
abandoned lava tubes for long
distances around the margins of the
flow. Methane gas explosions have
occurred at least 100 m from the
leading edge of a flow, blasting
rocks and debris in all directions.

Top photo: A dark tephra cloud

rises from a large methane gas
explosion in front of a slow-moving
Photograph by J.P. Lockwood on March 31, 1984 `a`a flow on Mauna Loa Volcano,

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 Hawai`i.

Bottom sketch: Illustration showing

methane gas explosion occurring
above an old empty lava tube.
Cracks, fractures, and tubes in older
flows beneath an active lava flow
(red) serve to an explosion.

Sketch by J. Johnson, 1998

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