The images of the lava emerging from the mouth of the Old Summit volcano, on the Canary Island of La Palma, have that point halfway between reality and fiction, the collective film imaginary that has taken real form. But this type of reactions in a large part of the globe are not so unusual since there are more than 70 active volcanoes.
First, what is an active volcano? According to those skilled in the art, in that category all those whose crater has had activity in the last 10,000 years, but much of them are asleep or inactive, which does not imply that they can not erupt at some point. And, by setting figures, only in Europe there are more than a hundred and inactive assets.
In fact, only in these first nine months of 2021, there are five those who have entered combustion with different consequences. Old summit closes this list that Etna inaugurated during the month of February, the highest active throughout Europe.
The 16th of that month came the first entry into an activity of a volcano that, according to experts, is in high season, has registered tens of explosions and has grown about 30 meters in recent months, in which it has forced the Catania Airport or has detached 700 meters from smoke columns.
Also in Italy, a few kilometers from the coast of Sicily, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, is another of the most active volcanoes in Europe, the Stromboli, which in 2019 during a massive eruption ended even with the life of a hiker And he left two wounded. On May 20 this year there was a joint eruption of this and the Etna that generated smoke columns that came up to two kilometers above sea level.
The third eruption in European ground occurred in March when Elvolcán Icelandic Fgragersfjall recorded a small eruption, as explained by meteorologists, who had already advanced more than 40,000 earthquakes that had been registered in the previous weeks on the island.
Outside the borders of our continent, there are three other volcanoes that have registered activity in recent months. The Sinabung erupted at the beginning of the month of March leaving gas clouds over 5,000 meters high but without causing death as it did in 2014 where the number of victims amounted to 14; On April 9, the activity of the Soufriere, in the Guadalupe National Park, forced to vacate thousands of inhabitants from the Island localities of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and their emissions reached the European continent; In May, Nyiragongo caused the death of more than thirty people and fleeze thousand inhabitants of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and, finally, that same month, the Pacaya volcano, in Guatemala, who for two months maintained his Eruptive activity with ash columns higher than kilometer tall.
In 2020, it was only the Taal volcano, in the Philippines, who registered eruptive activity; In 2019, the Whakaari (New Zealand), the Stromboli and the Sinabung; In 2018, they were the Kilaeaua (Hawaii), Anak Krakatoya (Indonesia) or the Volcano de Fuego (Guatemala).
It is precisely at those points of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, where most active volcanoes accumulate at this time. According to the web Volcano Discovery, only in Indonesia are five volcanoes at high risk of entering eruption; four, in South America; four in Central America and the Caribbean; Four in the environment of the Philippines, and two others in the Alaska area.
Date Of Update: 21 September 2021, 17:35
