35 Destructive and Terrifying Facts about Volcanoes

The Kilauea Volcano in the Hawaiian Islands has been continuously spewing lava since 1983. It is one of the longest volcanic eruptions on Earth.

27. Mount Erebus in Antarctica, the southernmost active volcano in the world, has created a lake of molten lava in the middle of a lake of frozen water.

28. There is a type of undersea volcano named Asphalt volcano that does not spew lava but instead spews pure asphalt.

29. In December 2014 an underwater volcano erupted leading to the creation of a new island. Typically these types of islands don't survive more than a few months, but this one has persisted and is now connected to an older neighboring island.

30. In 1935 when Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano erupted and threatened the town of Hilo, the US Army Air Corps attempted to divert the oncoming lava flows with bombing runs planned by George S. Patton (then a Lt. Colonel).

The supervolcanic eruption of Lake Ilopango in El Salvador in 536 A.D. devastated the Mayan empire and started the slowing of Mayan progress which lasted 30 years because ash lingered in the atmosphere for 18 months, resulting in cold years and drought. This theory disputes older theories of Mayan decline of civilization and deforestation.

32. During the colonial times, people thought that the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua was a gate to hell. They believed a witch lived in the volcano guarding it. To stop frequent eruptions they sacrificed the prettiest girl in the town by throwing her in it.

33. The Santiaguito Volcano in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala has erupted almost every hour for 94 years. The 200,000 people living in Quetzaltenango live next to the world’s noisiest neighbor.

34. The Kavachi underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean is an active volcano, which frequently creates islands up to 50 feet tall, only to be eroded soon after by waves.

35. The 1902 Mount Pelée volcanic eruption destroyed the adjacent city of St. Pierre with its pyroclastic flow and only one man survived because he had been imprisoned in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like cell.