• Question: Can you die if a volcano erupts?

    Asked by to Heather, Becky on 24 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rebecca Williams

      Rebecca Williams answered on 24 Jun 2014:


      Hi Denisa & delia,
      Yes, unfortunately, volcanoes are very deadly. Since 1600 AD over 278,880 people have died in volcanic eruptions.

      Most people die from the flows of hot gas, ash and rocks called pyroclastic density currents or flows of mud called lahars. Thats why I study these things – to try and better understand them so we can be better prepared for them.

      Some volcanic eruptions have been pretty deadly. Tambora volcano, Indonesia, in 1815 killed 60,000 people. Krakatau volcano, Indonesia, in 1883 caused a tsunami which killed 36,000 people. Mt Pelee, in the Caribbean, killed 29,000 people in 1902. This picture shows one of the only survivors of this eruption looking over what was once the capital city of the island. You can see how everything is destroyed. Louis-Auguste Cyparis survived because he was in prison – it was very small and had no windows so survived the pyroclastic density currents.

    • Photo: Heather Price

      Heather Price answered on 24 Jun 2014:


      Hi denisa9 and delia,

      Becky has answered your question really well, but I’ll just add something about ash falls. We don’t have many volcanoes erupting in the UK these days (thank goodness!) but we’re still sometimes affected by ash from volcanoes, like the Eyjafjallajoekull eruption in Iceland in 2010.

      Here’s a map of where the ash got to (). The red dot shows where the eruption happened and the ash cloud covered most of Europe. You can’t spot the UK because we’re under the cloud, but you might be able to see Spain poking out of the bottom of the ash cloud.

      Breathing in ash dust has been linked with health problems like coughing and itchy eyes which isn’t much fun, but not as bad as dying! There is an incurable disease called silicosis which you can get if you’re exposed to dusts a lot (like if you work with them). Scientists think that it’s possible that people exposed to a lot of volcanic ash could get this, but there have been no cases of it so far. So generally it seems that volcanic ash isn’t too bad for us to breathe in compared to the other parts of eruptions like lava and pyroclastic flows….phew!

Comments