Witham. 2005. Volcanic Disasters and Incidents - A New Database

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 148 (2005) 191 233
www.elsevier.com/locate/jvolgeores
Volcanic disasters and incidents: A new database

C.S. Witham*
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK
Received 29 June 2004; received in revised form 26 April 2005; accepted 27 April 2005
Abstract
A new database on human mortality and morbidity, and civil evacuations arising from volcanic activity is presented. The aim
is to quantify the human impacts of volcanic phenomena during the 20th Century. Data include numbers of deaths, injuries,
evacuees and people made homeless, and the nature of the associated volcanic phenomena. The database has been compiled
from a wide range of sources, and discrepancies between these are indicated where they arise. The quality of the data varies
according to the source and the impacts reported. Data for homelessness are particularly poor and effects from ashfall and
injuries appear to be under-reported. Of the 491 events included in the database, ~53% resulted in deaths, although the total
death toll of 91,724 is dominated by the disasters at Mt Pelee and Nevado del Ruiz. Pyroclastic density currents account for the
largest proportion of deaths, and lahars for the most injuries incurred. The Philippines, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia, as a
region, were the worst affected, and middle-income countries experienced greater human impacts than low or high-income
countries. Compilation of the database has highlighted a number of problems with the completeness and accuracy of the
existing CRED EM-DAT disaster database that includes volcanic events. This database is used by a range of organisations
involved with risk management. The new database is intended as a resource for future analysis and will be made available via
the Internet. It is hoped that it will be maintained and expanded.
D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Volcano; human impacts; disaster; casualties; fatalities; evacuation
1. Introduction undating urban areas to light ashfalls that inconve-

nience only a small number of people. The further
The record of human impacts of volcanism offers back in history we look, the scarcer the written
important lessons for volcanic risk management. records of such impacts become and the harder it is
Impacts range in magnitude from mass casualty to evaluate the global picture. Records for recent
events arising from lahars or pyroclastic currents in- events are more numerous and often contain informa-
tion on the human consequences. In recent decades,
international news reports and aid-agency press
* Fax: +44 1223 333392. releases have added to the amount of information
E-mail address: claire.witham@metoffice.gov.uk. available. The 20th Century provides a reasonable
0377-0273/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2005.04.017
192 C.S. Witham / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 148 (2005) 191233
balance between length of time of the record and torical eruptions through to 1994, and evacuations
availability of data, and for this reason was selected from 1976 to 1994, based on volcanological reports
as the focus of analysis here. and papers.
An obvious classification of the human impacts of The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of
historical volcanic eruptions is by numbers of fatali- Disasters (CRED) Disaster Events Database (EM-
ties. But other impacts are important, including inju- DAT) (CRED, 2004; Sapir and Misson, 1992) was
ries sustained and medical intervention (although developed in the early 1990s and contains records of
these factors are less frequently reported). With the disasters requiring international assistance since 1900.
development of volcano monitoring and risk manage- This database is available on the Internet and its bmain
ment practice, the evacuation and relocation of popu- objective . . . is to serve the purposes of humanitarian
lations is increasingly common (Tobin and Whiteford, action at national and international levels. It is an
2002). Evacuees clearly also represent an important initiative aimed to rationalise decision making for
impact, since evacuation itself is often a traumatic disaster preparedness, as well as providing an objec-
process, and the housing of evacuees in often crowded tive base for vulnerability assessment and priority
shelters can lead to public health concerns. Famine settingQ (CRED, 2004). It is used by agencies such
and epidemic disease in displaced communities have as the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre in risk man-
led to high mortality in some historical volcanic dis- agement. EM-DAT uses international aid organisation
asters; for example, an estimated 49,000 people died reports, national government statements, insurance
following the Tambora eruption of 1815 (Tanguy et company reports and media reports, as sources on
al., 1998). The threat of disease is still present when disaster events, and includes information on fatalities,
large numbers of people are displaced, even with the injuries, homelessness, persons affected and financial
resources of todays international aid community. In losses. A cursory inspection of the volcanic events
the case of the spontaneous evacuation of several section of the database reveals a range of errors. These
hundred thousand residents of Goma during the include eruptions listed more than once, eruptions
2002 Nyiragongo eruption, a key action was the with the incorrect name and/or date (some the
purification of water supplies to mitigate against chol- wrong year), and the omission of a number of signif-
era outbreaks (Baxter and Ancia, 2002). icant volcanic disasters. One of the consequent aims
The effects on society can persist long after the of this work is to match up the EM-DAT events with
onset of volcanic unrest or cessation of activity. For the best available information from other sources.
instance, people may be displaced in evacuation cen- The CRED database, by definition, lists only di-
tres for many months after the activity starts, their saster events and Tanguy et al. (1998) only included
homes and livelihoods may have been destroyed, and eruptions with high fatalities. This means that small
subsequent heavy rains may remobilise deposited ma- events are missing from these records. To determine
terial forming hazardous lahars (volcanic mudflows). the cut-off point of inclusion in these databases, it is
Such impacts need to be considered when assessing necessary to consider what the impact thresholds are
the human consequences of eruptions. for a natural hazard event to be classed as a bdisasterQ.
Databases cataloguing some of the human impacts A variety of definitions of disaster exist: some are
of volcanic activity already exist (CRED, 2004; Sim- qualitative descriptions of impacts, whilst others are
kin and Siebert, 1994; Tanguy et al., 1998), but they quantitative thresholds that must be exceeded. Differ-
vary in the impacts that they record, the scale of the ences in these definitions can produce very different
impacts included, and the time period that they cover. outcomes for disaster statistics (e.g., Wijkman and
Tanguy et al. (1998) tallied best estimates of fatalities Timberlake, 1984) and lead to confusion. The UN
and their causes for what they considered the major International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR)
eruptions since 1783. They estimated that 221,907 defines a disaster as: ba serious disruption of the
people died in this period, with about 86,224 of functioning of society, causing widespread human,
these fatalities the result of only 27 eruptions in the material or environmental losses, which exceed the
20th Century. Simkin and Siebert (1994) (based partly ability of the affected society to cope using only its
on the work of Russell Blong) list fatalities for his- own resourcesQ (UN/ISDR, 2004). A similar defini-
C.S. Witham / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 148 (2005) 191233 193
tion of disaster was originally used in EM-DAT: bAn (Horwell et al., 2003a,b; Searl et al., 2002). Impact
interruption in time and space of normal processes will then depend significantly on population distribu-
beyond the coping capacity of the community, causing tion. For these reasons, area affected is a problematic
death, injury or homelessness, direct material losses category to include in a volcanic disaster database.
and/or negative economic impact. The interruption The number of people evacuated must, however, be
can be either sudden or gradual onsetQ (Sapir and considered for a volcanic disaster.
Misson, 1992). These definitions specify the main Here we present a new database of 20th Century
categories of human impact, but they do not provide volcanic events that have impacted people. The ratio-
much of a basis for quantifying their scale. nale behind constructing this new database is that
The first inventory of natural disasters and impacts there is no comprehensive catalogue of all the
(Sheehan and Hewitt, 1969) and its follow-up (Dwor- human impacts over time. The availability of accurate
kin, 1974), defined a major disaster in quantitative and comprehensive statistics is vital to understanding
terms, as one that satisfied at least one of the follow- the impacts of volcanism on society. This understand-
ing conditions: ing, in turn, contributes to the efficiency and effec-
tiveness with which humanitarian agencies serve
! At least 100 persons dead. vulnerable people (International Federation of Red
! At least 100 persons injured. Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2002). We have
! At least US$1,000,000 damage (this was subse- aimed here to include all volcanic events that have
quently inflation-adjusted to $3,600,000 by Shah, affected humans in the 20th Century. To avoid the
1983). somewhat arbitrary definitions of bdisasterQ and ex-
pand on previous work, we consider all volcano-re-
Other quantitative definitions of disaster thresholds lated incidents in the database, where an bincidentQ is
include more than 50 people seriously injured or 2000 an event that causes a human impact, but is not
homes destroyed or damage exceeding US$58,600,000 necessarily on a scale to classify as a disaster. To
at 1992 prices (McGuire, 1999), and at least 20 avoid confusion, we use the terms bincidentQ or
people dead or missing, or 50 people injured, or beventQ to refer to all entries in the database. We not
2000 homeless, or total insured losses of US$74.9 only consider eruptions, but any event associated with
million at 2004 prices (Swiss Re, 2005). The current prior or ongoing volcanic activity. This includes inci-
quantitative criteria used by CRED for entering an dents at non-erupting volcanoes such as deaths from
event into EM-DAT is: bA disaster has to have killed gas emission or secondary lahars.
10 or more persons or affected 100 or more persons. The years that should be taken as the start and the
An international appeal for assistance, however, takes end of any century are subject to debate, but for this
first precedence for entry, even if the first two criteria purpose the 20th Century is taken to be the years 1900
are not fulfilledQ (Sapir and Misson, 1992). This to 1999. The database is constructed in such a way
improves the original CRED definition by providing that it is easy to expand into the 21st Century or back
baseline numbers of people, but the differences be- into history. The bliveQ database will be published
tween the thresholds in the various definitions dem- online at the website of the International Volcanic
onstrate the uncertainty and confusion that can arise Health Hazards Network (www.ivhhn.org) in due
when dealing with natural disasters. Shah (1983) course.
suggested that the criteria for judging the impact of
any natural disaster should also include the extent of
the geographical area affected. In a volcanic disaster 2. Methods
context, geographical area affected is difficult to as-
sess, as there may be vast areas receiving small, but Data on the human consequences of volcanic inci-
inconsequential, amounts of ashfall. That said, the dents were compiled from a wide range of primary
health risks of ash remain poorly understood, and and secondary sources and these are referenced for
the widespread fallout of ash from major eruptions each database entry. These sources include the CRED-
may have long-term health impacts in certain cases EMDAT database, Volcanoes of the World (Simkin
and Siebert, 1994), the Smithsonian Institution activ- attribute has been omitted. The number of persons
ity reports, the Catalogue of Active Volcanoes and the bkilledQ includes all confirmed dead, all missing and
Bulletin of Volcanic Eruptions, in addition to many all presumed dead (where this information is available).
peer-reviewed articles and press reports. It was not Persons binjuredQ includes all those with physical inju-
feasible to check from primary sources every listed ries requiring medical attention or hospitalisation. Per-
event contained in the secondary sources, but wher- sons baffectedQ primarily refers to evacuees. The four
ever possible more than one source is used for each categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For
event. Readers interested in more qualitative data are instance, the people that are made homeless will nor-
referred to the relevant publication(s) listed as the mally make up part of the population that has been
source. Abbreviations used in the database to denote evacuated. The inclusion of such people in more than
sources are: one category in the database would result in over-
inflated values for the total number of people affected.
! CAVWCatalogue of Active Volcanoes of the Where there is sufficient information to suggest that
World. this is the case, the btotal affectedQ category has been
! CSLPCenter for Short-Lived Phenomena, Event adjusted. Consequently, the total is not always the sum
Notification Report, Smithsonian Institution. of all four categories.
! BGVNBulletin of the Global Volcanism Net- The terms binjuredQ and baffectedQ cause problems
work, Smithsonian Institution. in that they are not properly defined in disaster report-
! BVEBulletin of Volcanic Eruptions, published in ing and collection of data may be strongly controlled
Bulletin Volcanologique. by the location and type of the event. Event location
! SEANScientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, and development status of the country will influence
Smithsonian Institution. the presence and accessibility of medical facilities for
! VoWSimkin and Siebert, 1994, Volcanoes of the injured persons and in remote locations and less-de-
World. veloped countries injuries may go unaided and, hence,
unreported. This will be a problem particularly for the
Information for each volcano in the database early events in the database. bAffectedQ is an awkward
includes name, Smithsonian Institution volcano num- category, because it is inexact. People can be affected
ber, country and geographic coordinates. Where nec- by volcanic activity in many ways, from ashfall hin-
essary, volcano names given in the original sources dering daily activities to long-term evacuation, the
were changed to those used in the Smithsonian Insti- exact effect being determined by the type and location
tution gazetteer (www.volcano.si.edu). This provides of the volcanic activity. There are no standards for
consistency in the database and allows cross-referenc- reporting these different impacts and so, at present,
ing. Latitude and longitude of each volcano are also they are all contained within the one category, if they
taken from the gazetteer allowing the geographical are reported at all.
distribution of disasters to be interrogated. One of the aims of the database is to provide a
The dates used for the events in the database are quantitative indication of the impacts of volcanic
generally the dates that the activity or listed phenom- phenomena on people in the 20th Century. Often,
ena had a severe impact on people (causing evacua- accurate figures for people affected are unavailable,
tions, deaths etc). Where such dates are unknown or particularly where large areas have been impacted.
unclear, the start date of the activity is given instead. Consequently, any numerical analysis will be, at
Problems with dates ascribed to volcanic activity have best, a rough estimate. The large events and their
been considered by Hittelman et al. (2001). associated errors will also drown out the signal from
For each event, the number of people bkilledQ, the smaller events. A range of values can often be
binjuredQ, baffectedQ and bmade homelessQ are listed. found in the literature for given impacts. In these
The total number of people impacted by the event is instances, the CRED approach is to take the average
also given. Some sources occasionally report financial value. The volcanological records and literature are
losses caused by volcanic activity, but there is little generally more precise (although not necessarily more
consistency in the availability of such data so this accurate) when quoting numbers of people, so we
have tried to avoid the CRED approach by collecting and theirs. A default value of 1000 has been applied
data from other sources. Where a number of values do here whenever there is reference to a village, an area
occur in trusted sources, the range is given in the or an island being evacuated or affected, but no
relevant impact field of the database and the reported further information. It is acknowledged that this
values provided in the accompanying notes. Ranges of value may be too large for some instances (for exam-
values hinder quantitative analysis, so the value from ple remote villages) and that future refinement of the
the most trusted source (or an average if there is enumeration policy based on geographical knowledge
uncertainty) is identified in a separate bquantitativeQ could reduce the range of error associated with such
field for each impact. events. A default value of 10 000 (and multiples
The 1994 unrest of Taal volcano in the Philippines thereof) was applied in three instances where there
highlights the difficulty of establishing firm estimates were references to a town(s) being affected. Where
of the movement and behaviour of people during a there is no value, range or qualitative statement given,
volcanic crisis. News reports on the situation (sum- but impacts are known to have occurred, a question
marised in BGVN 19:02) are unclear on both the mark is shown in the database. In such instances, a
number of people evacuated from the island and the default numeric value of 15 is attributed to the event,
circumstances of their departure, with one report tell- following the specification of Simkin et al. (2001).
ing of hundreds who fled and another of thousands Their derivation of the values for bunknownQ and
who were ordered to evacuate. Similar conflicting bmanyQ is explained in more detail in Simkin et al.
accounts exist for many other incidents in the data- (2001). The conversion of cases of homelessness
base. This makes estimating evacuation numbers defined in terms of families is done by multiplying
problematic and increases the error associated with by the average family size in the region as defined by
this category. CRED: 5 for developing countries and 3 for devel-
Many records give only a qualitative indication of oped countries (reduced from actual estimates of 5.6
the impacts of events, such as bmany were injuredQ or and 3.5, respectively (Sapir and Misson, 1992)). The
bone village was evacuatedQ. To enable a quantitative developed country value probably underestimates ac-
examination of the database, these descriptors had to tual numbers for the early part of the century, as
be transferred into numbers. The enumeration policy families and households were larger then than today.
in Table 1 was adopted based on the approaches of Similar issues of under-estimation surround records
Simkin et al. (2001) and CRED. The values of Simkin where the best estimate is known to be the minimum
et al. (2001) have been used in preference to those possible value.
from CRED to enable comparison between this work To enable geographical analysis of events, each
record includes the volcanos location, country and
region. The fifteen regions used were modified and
Table 1 extended from those used in the EM-DAT to make
Enumerators/multipliers used where qualitative descriptions of
impacts are given instead of numbers
them more applicable to the distribution of the volca-
noes. Hawaii is here included under North America.
Qualitative description CRED-EMDAT Simkin This
et al. (2001) work
For each region, a representative location on the world
map was used for plotting the data graphically.
Few/some 3 3
Several 5 5
Each country was assigned a development level
Unknown 15 15 using the World Banks 2000/2001 development re-
Family/house 3 3 port (World Bank, 2000). This divides the economic
developed country status of countries into one of three categories: low
Family/house 5 5 income (L), middle income (M), and high income (H).
developing country
Many 100 100
Islands belonging to other countriese.g., Martini-
Hundreds 200 300 300 que, which is an overseas department of France
Thousands 2000 3000 3000 have been given the development code of their parent
Village 1000 country, which may be unrepresentative. These codes
Town 10 000 are only valid for the recent past, but provide a
reasonable proxy for the general pattern of develop- database bDis codeQ field. These codes have been
ment over the 20th Century. However, it is important derived following the classification schemes of Sim-
to recognise the relationships between development kin and Siebert (1994) and Tanguy et al. (1998).
and disasters (e.g., UN/ISDR, 2004). The economic Different letters are used for each phenomenon to
development of Honduras, for example, was put back avoid confusion and facilitate sorting and query of
by approximately 20 years by the damage wrought by the database in an electronic environment. Where
Hurricane Mitch in 1998 (International Federation of more than one type of volcanic activity has occurred,
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2002). Some the numbers of people affected by each phenomenon
volcanoes are located in generally uninhabited areas are given for the data entries, if known. In many
and appear in the database because people have been instances, however, it is unclear what the cause(s) of
injured or killed whilst on fieldwork or tourist trips. death/injury/evacuation was. These events are not
Although these volcanoes have been assigned a de- assigned a disaster code due to lack of information.
velopment status, its relevance is debatable. The numbers of people mildly affected by ashfall are
The cause of a volcanic incident is an important often vast and unrecorded and these are not included.
consideration for future hazard assessment and the Neither are the numbers of people injured in road-
phenomena causing death/injury/affect is given for traffic accidents following ashfall, as such statistics
each event where known. The cause has been sub- are difficult to obtain. Major aviation incidents involv-
divided into 14 categories (Table 2). Each phenome- ing multiple engine loss to individual aircraft are
non has been given a code letter, which is used in the included, but other aviation events such as rerouting
or airport closure are omitted for similar reasons.
Table 2
Codes for impact causes 2.1. Problems in assigning event data
Code Phenomena Comments
causing impact A number of complications were encountered
T Tephra Includes ballistics and explosions when compiling the database. The main problems
(including steam blasts). Deaths were:
may be due to suffocation and
tephra loading causing roofs to ! Lack of corroboration between the dates and
collapse.
P Pyroclastic Includes directed blasts
impacts given in different sources, leading to
density currents many double entries during the building of the
M Primary lahars Mudflows associated with eruptions database;
N Secondary Non-eruptive. May be triggered by ! Incorrect naming of the volcano causing an event;
lahars/flooding heavy rainfall. ! Double reporting of the same event, but with dif-
D Debris
flows/avalanches
ferent dates in the same source;
L Lava flows ! Finding literature sources to verify events listed in
S Seismicity Associated with volcanic activity, the CRED database or mentioned in online reports
leading to building collapse. or news articles;
W Tsunami (waves) Volcanogenic ! Determining the phenomena causing the effect,
J Jokulhlaups
G Gas/acid rain No eruption necessary
particularly for the older eruptions. In a number
H Volcanic unrest Volcanic unrest or hazard leading to of instances this was not possible;
evacuation, where a range of ! Determining numbers of people from vague qual-
precursors had been noticed. itative statements;
F Famine Indirect ! Determining whether references to bcasualtiesQ in-
E Epidemic Indirect, often a factor in displaced
populations
dicated numbers of dead and/or injured.
I Other indirect Indirect, other than famine or
epidemic Data from additional sources was sought in all
Derived following Tanguy et al. (1998) and Simkin and Siebert cases where problems arose, but in some instances
(1994). uncertainty could not be resolved. Careful cross-
referencing of events and their dates and impacts and reduces the date to one column. All dates are
allowed most of the problems above to be solved given in yyyy/mm/dd format. Where the days or
and we believe that all the double and incorrect events months are unknown or uncertain, they are either
have been removed. Data from all the sources con- left blank or denoted by b~Q, respectively. The list of
sulted for each event, including those that are recog- sources for the database is given in Appendix A. The
nised as erroneous, are noted in the database to full version of the database, which includes comments
highlight the discrepancies that exist in the available on the different data sources, will be posted online at
literature and clarify previous inaccuracies. the website of the International Volcanic Health
Hazards Network (www.ivhhn.org).
3. Results 3.1. By number killed/injured/homeless/affected
A total of 491 events are listed in the database The total numbers of people killed; injured; made
spanning the whole of the 20th Century (1900 to homeless, and evacuated or affected by volcanic phe-
1999). These range in type from the evacuation of a nomena in the 20th Century are given in Table 4. Due
couple of people, to the deaths of tens of thousands to the qualitative references present in many event
and show that the values for the total number of descriptions, these values should be treated as approx-
people impacted by eruptions are predominantly con- imations only, particularly those for the homeless,
trolled by the numbers of people evacuated/affected. evacuated and total affected categories. Ranges for
The information contained in the database about each deaths and injuries are much better constrained than
event allows the spatial and temporal distribution of those for the other categories. To account for the
incidents over time to be considered and results of uncertainty, maximum and minimum estimates were
analysis of the data by impacts, location, cause and calculated (Table 5) using the ranges in the database.
year are presented below. For the minimum estimation, all values corresponding
The quality of the data contained in the database is to qualitative references were removed. For the max-
variable, ranging from published anecdotal reports to imum estimate, the same enumerators were applied as
summaries of medical records. Even for well-studied in the best estimate scenario. This means that the best
eruptions the information on numbers of people im- estimate values appear closer to the maximum than
pacted is often imprecise and in many cases data on the minimum and that the maximum value is only a
injuries and wider effects is suspected to be lacking. rough estimate. The values used in the rest of the data
This partly reflects the problems associated with col- analysis are those from the best estimate.
lecting such data, particularly in developing countries The results discussed below assume that the data-
where medical and communication facilities may be base is reasonably comprehensive in its inclusion of
limited. To indicate the problems with data quality, all events. This is impossible to test or prove and it
reported values found for the different impacts are should be remembered that all percentages and ratios
given in the database. These show that the increase here are relative to the calculated best estimate totals
through the century in communication of human and do not account for any error ranges. Under report-
impacts has sometimes compounded the problem of ing of certain outcomes, such as injuries, and issues of
obtaining accurate statistics by providing an increased data completeness and quality mean that all values
number of differing values. Lack of meta-data on should be viewed with a high degree of caution.
where values have been obtained from and when Table 4 shows that more events resulted in fatalities
(fatality estimates/counts often change with time than any other outcome (~53% of events), but that
since the event (e.g., Alexander, 1993)) reduces the more people were evacuated or affected than any
confidence that can be placed in some of the data. other consequence (~94% of people). This indicates
A simplified version of the database is given in the importance of including numbers on people af-
Table 3. For compactness, this version excludes the fected in incident reports, even if they are at best
Smithsonian Institution number, latitude and longi- rough approximations. Injuries account for the smal-
tude of the volcanoes, and accompanying comments, lest group of people (~0.3%), suggesting that, consid-
198
Table 3
Database of 20th Century volcanic incidents
Volcano Country Dev Region Dis code Date yyyy Killed Killed Injured Injured Homeless Homeless Affected Affected (incl TotAff quant
/mm/dd quant quant quant (incl evac) evac) quant
Kirishima Japan H East Asia 1900/2/16 2 2 3 3 5

Asama Japan H East Asia P 1900/7/15 > 25? 25 25
Adatara Japan H East Asia T/P 1900/7/17 72 72 10 10 82
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1901/5/22 many? 100 100
C.S. Witham / Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 148 (2005) 191233
Pele Martinique H Caribbean P(28,577)/ 1902/5/5 29,000 29,000 123 123 1350 1350 30,473
M(423)
Soufriere St .Vincent M Caribbean P 1902/5/7 1565 1565 120144 144 1709
St. Vincent 1680
Torishima Japan H East Asia T 1902/8/8 125 125 125
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America T?(2000 1902/10/24 > 4500 8750 8750
3000)/E(50 13000
0010,000)
Okataina New Zealand H Oceania T 1903/8/30 3 to 4 4 4
(Tarawera)
Karthala Comoros L East Africa G 1903// 17 17 17
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1904/1/30 16 16 2045 45 3 villages 3000 3061
Karthala Comoros L East Africa L 1904/2/25 1 1 1
Vesuvius Italy H European Union T 1905/3/10 1 1 1 1 2
Savaii Western M Oceania L 1905/8/4 several/5 5000 5000
Samoa villages
Vesuvius Italy H European Union T(213)/L(3) 1906/4/6 218700 218 300 300 100,000 100,000 100,518
/G(2)
Alayta Ethiopia L Central Africa 1907/6/ ? 15 15
Lewotobi Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1907/10/16 1 1 several 5 6
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1909/8/29 221 221 221
Taupo New Zealand H Oceania M 1910/3/20 1 1 1
Usu Japan H East Asia M 1910/7/25 1 1 15,000 15,000 15,001
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia P/W 1911/1/30 1335 1335 199 199 1534
Asama Japan H East Asia T 1911/5/8 1 1 1
Asama Japan H East Asia T 1911/8/15 2+ 2 2
Novarupta Alaska H Aleutians T 1912/6/6 2 2 2
(Katmai)
Nyamuragira Zaire L Central Africa L 1912/12/ 20 20 20
Ambrym Vanuatu M Oceania T 1913/12/5 21 21 87127 121 islanders 1000 1021
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia D(1226?) 1914/1/12 23140 58 50,000 50,000 50,179
/T(2)/I(23)
/S(rest)
Lassen USA H North America T 1914/6/14 1 1 1
White Island New Zealand H Oceania D 1914/9/10 10 to 11 11 11
Aoba Vanuatu M Oceania M 1914// 12 12 12
Okataina New Zealand H Oceania T 1917/4/1 2 2 1 1 3
(Tarawera)
Agrigan Mariana Is. H Oceania T 1917/4/9 1+ 1 1
San Salvador El Salvador M Central America S/L 1917/6/6 352? 352 352
(El Boqueron)
Urupuzima (?) Japan H East Asia W 1918/9/8 24 24 24
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1919/5/19 5000 5110 9000 houses 45,000 50,110
5160 /104 villages
Stromboli Italy H European Union T 1919/5/22 4 4 20 20 10 houses 30 54
Nasu Japan H East Asia G 1919/7/6 2 2 2
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1920/10/12 3335 35 1 village 1000 1035
Nasu Japan H East Asia G 1921/11/26 1? 1 1
Tangkuban- Indonesia L Southeast Asia G 1923/6/ 3 3 3
parahu
Kirishima Japan H East Asia 1923/7/ 1 1 1
Kilauea USA H North America T 1924/5/18 1 1 1
Papandayan Indonesia L Southeast Asia G 1924/12/18 1 1 1
Santorini Greece H European Union T 1925/8/11 many 100 100
Tokachi Japan H East Asia M(137) 1926/5/24 144 144 > 207 207 5000/5080 15,000 15,351
/T(3) houses
Tokachi Japan H East Asia M 1926/9/8 2 2 2
Izalco El Salvador M Central America P 1926/11/5 ? 15 15
Dieng Indonesia L Southeast Asia T(1) 1928/5/13 40 40 40
Mayon Philippines M Southeast Asia P 1928/6/25 >1 1 1
Paluweh Indonesia L Southeast Asia W(128)/T 1928/8/4 226 226 200 200 426
Etna Italy H European Union L 1928/11/7 43005000 4650 4650
Vesuvius Italy H European Union L 1929/6/3 60 houses 180 180
Komagatake Japan H East Asia T 1929/6/17 2 2 4 4 6
Etna Italy H European Union 1929/8/2 2 2 2
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America P/M 1929/11/2 2005000 5000 5000
Ambrym Vanuatu M Oceania 1929// islanders 1000 1000
Stromboli Italy H European Union P 1930/9/11 4>6 4 20 20 24
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1930/12/18 1369 1369 13 villages 13,000 higher villages 13,000 14,369
Fuego Guatemala M Central America T 1932/1/21 some 3 3
Kusatsu Japan H East Asia M 1932/10/1 2 2 7 7 9
Shirane
Harimkotan Kurile Is. M East Asia W 1933/1/8 2 2 2
Hakone Japan H East Asia G 1933/5/10 1 1 1
Kuchinoerabu Japan H East Asia T, ?P(26) 1933/12/24 8 8 26 26 34
jima
(continued on next page)
199
Table 3 (continued)
200
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1934/11/17 valley population 100 100

Mt. Hood USA H North America G 1934 1 1 1
Rabaul Papua New M Oceania P/T(375 1937/5/29 441507 506 several villages 5000 7500 7500 8006
Guinea Blong)/
I(few)
Asama Japan H East Asia T 1938/7/16 a few 3 3
Lopevi Vanuatu M Oceania L 1939/2/2 2 villages 2000 island evacuated 2000 2000
Torishima Japan H East Asia L 1939/8/18 2 2 2
Dieng Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1939/10/13 10 10 ? 63 houses 315 325
MiyakeJima Japan H East Asia L 1940/7/12 11 11 20 20 85 houses 255 286
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1940/8/23 1 1 2 2 3
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1940/10/ 1 1 1 1
Asama Japan H East Asia T 1941/7/9 1 1 1 2
Michoacan Mexico M Central America O(3)/I(100) 1943/2/20 ~103 103 2528 2528 3288 3288 5919
(Paricutin)
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1943/4/1 sector pop 1000 1000
Cerro Azul Galapagos M South America T 1943/4/13 1 1 1

Vesuvius Italy H European Union T(24) 1944/3/ 2627 27 27
/L(2)/ I(1)
Cleveland Aleutian Is. H Aleutians T 1944/6/10 1 1 1 village 1000 1
Usu Japan H East Asia T 1944/6/23 1000
Usu Japan H East Asia G 1944/8/26 1 1 1
Dieng Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1944/12/4 114117 114 38 or 250 250 173 houses 865 1229
Usu Japan H East Asia T 1944/12/28 1 1 1
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia L(homes) 1946/1/ 1 1 2 villages 2000 2001
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1946/2/ 100 houses 500 500
Ruang Indonesia L Southeast Asia H 1946/9/ 900 900 900
Niuafo'ou Tonga M Oceania L 1946// 11722500 1172 1172
Hekla Iceland H Rest of Europe L 1947/11/2 1 1 1
Iliwerung Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1948/5/7 ? 15 15
Villarica Chile H South America M 1948/10/18 40100 40 200 200 240
Purace Colombia M South America T 1949/5/26 1617 16 16
HibokHibok Philippines M Southeast Asia P? 1949/6/ 2 2 2
Villarica Chile H South America M 1949/12/ 36 36 36
Mauna Loa USA H North America L 1950/6/1 several houses 15 15
HibokHibok Philippines M Southeast Asia P 1950/9/15 6684 66 66
Asama Japan H East Asia T 1950/9/23 1 1 1 1 2
Ambrym Vanuatu M Oceania T 1950// 701+ 701 701
Lamington Papua New M Oceania P 1951/1/21 2942 2942 67 67 3009
Guinea 3000
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1951/8/31 7 7 7
HibokHibok Philippines M Southeast Asia P 1951/12/4 500 500 areas evac 1000 1500
Ambrym Vanuatu M Oceania T 1951// islanders from 1000 1000
the South
Bayonnaise Japan H East Asia T 1952/9/24 29 or 31 29 29
rocks
Binuluan Philippines M Southeast Asia M 1952// 12 12 12
Tinakula Solomon Is L Oceania 1952// island evacuated 1000 1000
Sangeang Api Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1953/3/25 several 5 Sangeang 1000 1005
Aso Japan H East Asia T 1953/4/27 5 to 11 6 > 100 100 106
Sirung Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1953/6/ 5 5 1 1 6
Hakone Japan H East Asia D 1953/7/26 10 10 10
Oshima Japan H East Asia 1953/10/13 1 1 1
Ruapehu New Zealand H Oceania N 1953/12/24 151 151 151
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1954/1/18 3768 64 57 57 3 villages and 3000 3121
90 homes
Kilauea USA H North America L 1954/2/28 ~20 homes and 100 1 village 1000 1000
plantation
village
Tateyama Japan H East Asia G 1954/7/21 1 1 1
Bam Papua New M Oceania I 1954// 25 25 many 100 island 1000 1000
Guinea population
HibokHibok Philippines M Southeast Asia N 1954// 2 2 2
CarranLos Chile H South America G 1955/7/27 2 2 2
Venados
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia 1955/10/13 1 1 1
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P/T 1956/1/3 houses 75 surroundings of 1000 1000
Apu
Bristol Island South Antarctica T 1956/1/19 island 15 15
Sandwich
Islands
Oshima Japan H East Asia T 1957/10/13 1 1 53 53 54
Capelinhos Azores H North Atlantic 1957/10/ 4811 4811 4811
Manam Papua New M Oceania P 1957/12/ 1 village 1000 30003200 3000 3000
Guinea
Capelinhos Azores H North Atlantic S 1958/5/12 western part of 1000 1000
island
Aso Japan H East Asia T 1958/6/24 10 to12 12 2028 28 5 houses 15 55
Mahawu Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1958/7/12 1 1 10 10 11
Daisetsu Japan H East Asia G 1958/7/21 2 2 2
201
Table 3 (continued)
202
Asama Japan H East Asia I 1958// 7 7 7
Okinawa Japan H East Asia T 1959/6/ 86 86 86
ToriShima
Manam Papua New M Oceania 1960/3/17 thousands 3000 3000
Guinea
Lopevi Vanuatu M Oceania H 1960// island evacuated 1000 1000
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1961/4/13 6 66 6 810 8000 communities in 10,000 10012
villages forbidden zone
Daisetsu Japan H East Asia G 1961/6/18 2 2 2
Tristan da Atlantic H South Atlantic S 1961/10/10 264270 270 270
Cunha
Tokachi Japan H East Asia T 1962/6/29 5 5 11 11 16
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1962/10/ 2 2 5 5 5 villages 5000 5000
Gamalama Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1962/12/31 5 5 5 5 10
Irazu Costa Rica H Central America T 1963/3/17 5 to 15 15 200 200 45005000 4500 4715
Agung Indonesia L Southeast Asia P(820/59); 1963/3/17 1138> 1138 296 296 332,234 332,234 333,668
T(155/201); 1584
M(163/36)
Villarica Chile H South America M 1963/5/21 ? 15 15
Fuego Guatemala M Central America M 1963/9/30 7 7 7
Batur Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1963/9/ 2? 2 3 villages 3000 3002
Irazu Costa Rica H Central America M 1963/12/10 30 to 40 30 400 houses 2000 > 1000 2000 2030
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1963/12/ orphanage 15 15
Paluweh Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1964/1/1 1 13 3 4
Villarica Chile H South America M 1964/3/3 4 to 25 25 2000 2000 2025
Dieng Indonesia L Southeast Asia 1964/12/13 114 114 114
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia P/W/I 1965/9/28 190 > 190 785 785 13,000 familes; 58,000 58,975
355 58,000
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia P(1)/M 1966/4/24 208 212 6086 86 5000 5000 5000 5000 10,298
(211) 215
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1966/7/ ~14,000 14,000 14,000
Awu Indonesia L Southeast Asia P/M(10)/I 1966/8/12 3988 39 1000 2000 2 villages 2000 40,000 40,000 42,039
(1)/T 1000s
(injuries)
Kuchinoerabu Japan H East Asia T 1966/11/22 3 3 3
jima
Rincon de la Costa Rica H Central America T 1967/2/23 population 1000 1000
Vieja
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1968/3/8 3 3 1000 1000 1003
Mayon Philippines M Southeast Asia M(35?), 1968/4/21 3>6 6 6000 6000 45,000 45,000 51006
P(1)
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America P 1968/7/29 7887 78 3280 3280 12,391 12,391 15,749
Cerro Negro Nicaragua L Central America T 1968/10/27 35 families 175 175
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia M/P(dead) 1969/1/7 13 3 3800; 742 3800 3803
793 homes
Iya Indonesia L Southeast Asia T(1)/N(1) 1969/1/27 2 2 10 10 287 houses 1435 surrounding 8000 8012
residents
Deception Is. Antarctica Antarctica S 1969/2/21 scientists 15 15
evacuated
Didicas Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1969/3/26 2 to 3 3 3
Narugo Japan H East Asia G 1969/8/26 1 1 1
Canlaon Philippines M Southeast Asia 1969/10/11 1700 1700 1700
Campi Flegrei Italy H European Union S 1970/3/2 3 3 36,000 36,000 36003
Lopevi Vanuatu M Oceania 1970/5/ island evacuated 1000 1000
Jan Mayen Jan Mayen H Rest of Europe T/L 1970/9/20 39 39 39
Cerro Negro Nicaragua L Central America 1971/2/3 600 600 3000 3000 3600
Hudson, Cerro Chile H South America M 1971/8/12 3 to 5 5 most settlers, 50 250 255
families
Fuego Guatemala M Central America T 1971/9/14 2 to 10 10 10
Tinakula Solomon Is. L Oceania L 1971/9/27 1606000 6000 6000
Soufriere St. Vincent M Caribbean 1971/10/17 2000 2000 2000
St. Vincent
La Palma Canary Is. H North Atlantic L 1971/10/28 ? 15 15
Kusatsu Japan H East Asia G 1971/12/27 6 6 6
Shirane
Villarica Chile H South America M 1971/12/29 1530 15 15
Piton de la Reunion H East Africa I 1972/8/ 3 3 3
Fournaise
Vestmannaey- Iceland H Rest of Europe G/L 1973/1/23 1 1 300 houses 900 52005300 5300 5301
jar (Heimaey)
Hudson, Cerro Chile H South America M 1973/4/5 2 2 2
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia T 1973/6/1 1 1 1
Iliboleng Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1973/9/ People around 1000 1000
the volcano
Iliwerung Indonesia L Southeast Asia W 1973/12?/ 2 2 2
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia D 1974/4/27 4 4 4 villages 4000 4004
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia N 1974/6/17 3 3 3
NiigataYake Japan H East Asia T 1974/7/28 3 3 3
yama
203
204
Table 3 (continued)
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia N 1974/8/9 5 5 5
Fuego Guatemala M Central America T 1974/10/10 few 3 1000s 3000 3003
Etna Italy H European Union T 1974// some 3 3
Aso Japan H East Asia S 1975/1/23 10 10 16 houses 48 58
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America P 1975/6/17 2 2 1many 100 several towns 40,000 40,102
Kilauea USA H North America W 1975/11/29 2 2 many 100 102
Makian Indonesia L Southeast Asia H 1976/6/13 8000/3250 8000 8000
families
Kusatsu Japan H East Asia G 1976/8/3 3 3 3
Shirane
Sangay Ecuador M South America T 1976/8/12 2 24 4 6
Soufrire Guadeloupe H Caribbean T 1976/8/12 4 4 73,500 73,500 73,504
Guadeloupe
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1976/8/31 ~ 100 100 several 11,510 11,610
thousand/11,510
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia L 1976/9/19 1 11 1 24 homes 96 1800 1800 1802
Sarychev Kurile Is. M East Asia T/L 1976/9/23 Met staff 15 15
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America 1976/10/21 70,000 70,000 70,000
Merapi Indonesia L South-east Asia N 1976/11/25 29 29 29
Semeru Indonesia L South-east Asia M 1976/11/11 40 or 40 258 homes 1290 1330
to 14 119?
Kadovar Papua New M Oceania S 1976/11/ 1000? 1000 1000
Guinea
San Miguel El Salvador M Central America T 1976/12/2 a few 3 3
Nyiragongo Zaire L Central Africa L 1977/1/10 50-600 600 10 10 800 800 8000-65,000 50,000 51,410
Karthala Comoros L East Africa L 1977/4/5 0 or ?1 3 villages/5000 3000 4000-20,000 4000 4000
Piton de la Reunion H East Africa L 1977/4/8 1 1 1000-2500 2500 2501
Fournaise
Aso Japan H East Asia T 1977/7/ several 5 5
Usu Japan H East Asia N/T(evac) 1977/8/7 3 32 2 10,000-27,000 27,000 27,005
Kilauea USA H North America L 1977/9/29 250 250 250
Taal Philippines M South-east Asia T 1977/10/3 Taal Island 10,000 10,000
residents
Semeru Indonesia L South-east Asia N 1977/12/16/26 2 homes 10 10 10
Westdahl Aleutian Is. H Aleutians T 1978/2/4 lighthouse staff 5 5
Semeru Indonesia L South-east Asia N 1978/3/5 15 houses 75 75
Mayon Philippines M South-east Asia T/L 1978/5/7 23,000-25,000 23,000 23,000
Bulusan Philippines M South-east Asia T 1978/7/29 1000 1000 1000
Sakura-jima Japan H East Asia N 1978/8/30 3 3 3
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America 1978/9/2 1 1 1
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1978/9/19 12 12 12
Usu Japan H East Asia N 1978/10/24 3 3 2 2 5
Kliuchevskoi Kamchatka M Aleutians T 1978// 1 1 1
Piton de la Reunion H East Africa L 1978// village 1000
Fournaise
Ambrym Vanuatu M Oceania G 1979/2/10 local 1000 1000 1000
inhabitants
Dieng Indonesia L Southeast Asia G 1979/2/20 142149 149 1000 1000 15,00017,000 17,000 18149
Karkar Papua New M Oceania T 1979/3/8 2 2 2
Guinea
Soufriere St. Vincent M Caribbean T/P 1979/4/13 0 or 2 17,00022,000 17,000 17,000
St. Vincent
CarranLos Chile H South America T 1979/4/14 125 125 125
Venados
Marapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1979/4/30 8082 80 80
Iliwerung Indonesia L Southeast Asia W 1979/7/7 500 500 500
Aso Japan H East Asia T 1979/9/6 3 3 11 11 14
Etna Italy H European Union T 1979/9/12 9 9 2324 23 32
Llaima Chile H South America T 1979/10/15 tourists/residents 1000 1000
Sierra Negra Galapagos M South America T/L 1979/11/13 3090? 60 60
Bulusana Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1980/2/7 area residents 1000 1000
Mt. St. Helens USA H North America T(51)/M(6) 1980/5/18 58 58 10 to 12 12 2500 2500 360 + ~5 in 365 2935
/I(4+) aircraft
Mt. St. Helens USA H North America T 1980/6/12 1500 1500 1500
Bulusan Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1980/7/6 area residents 1000 1000
Mt. St. Helens USA H North America S 1980/7/22 > 120 120 120
Mt. St. Helens USA H North America S 1980/8/7 workers on 120 120
flanks
Gamalama Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1980/9/4 40,00052,235 52,235 52,235
Ulawun Papua New M Oceania P 1980/10/6 2000 2000 2000
Guinea
Mt. St. Helens USA H North America S 1980/10/16 92 92 92
Paluweh Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1981/1/18 1850 1850 1850
Etna Italy H European Union L 1981/3/17 many houses 300 250 250 550
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1981/3/29 1 1 272 272 273
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1981/5/14 192378 372 152 152 5000 5000 5524
Pagan Mariana Is. H Oceania T/L 1981/5/15 1 1 5354 53 53
Mayon Philippines M Southeast Asia N 1981/6/30 47>200 47 9 9 56
Gamkonora Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1981/7/19 2500 >3500 3500 3500
Paluweh Indonesia L Southeast Asia T(evac), 1981/8/22 1 village 1000 inhabitants?1850 1850 1850
P (damage)
205
206
Table 3 (continued)
Nyamuragira Zaire L Central Africa L 1981/12/26 area residents 1000 1000
Telica Nicaragua L Central America T 1982/2/12 50+ 50 50
Mt. St. Helens USA H North America M 1982/3/19 70 families 210 210
El Chichn Mexico M Central America S(10 1982/3/29 1002000 2000 200500 500 15,000 15,000 60,000 60,000 62,500
SEAN)/T(1
53 Blong)/
P(rest)
Galunggung Indonesia L Southeast Asia T/P/L(dest 1982/4/5 23188 37 6dozens 100 22 villages 22,000 62,000300,000 62,755 62,892
oyed some evac and ~755
homes) affected on
aircraft
El Chichn Mexico M Central America N 1982/5/27 1 13 3 4
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America N 1982/8/25 hundreds 300 300
Soputan Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1982/8/26 85030,000 850 850
Cameroon Cameroon L Central Africa L 1982/10/16 ~300 + small 1300 1300
town
Sakurajima Japan H East Asia T 1982/?/ 1 1 1
Manam Papua New M Oceania 1982// ? 1000 1000
Guinea
Kilauea USA H North America L 1983/1/ 1 1 13 houses 39 40
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America M 1983/7/6 hundreds3500 3500 3500
Colo Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1983/7/18 70007101 7101 7101
(Una Una)
Gamalama Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1983/8/9 > 50006334 6334 6334
Iliwerung Indonesia L Southeast Asia W 1983/8/17 ?some 3 3
MiyakeJima Japan H East Asia L 1983/10/3 423 houses 1100 14004500 4400 4400
/1100 people
Campi Flegrei Italy H European Union S 1983/10/4 < 40,000 40,000 40,000
Kliuchevskoi Kamchatka M Aleutians T 1983// 1 1 1
Llaima Chile H South America T 1984/4/20 tourists/residents 1000 1000
Kilauea USA H North America L 1984/4/20 3 houses 9 9
Soputan Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1984/5/24 350 350 350
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1984/6/13 10005000 1000 1000
Unzen Japan H East Asia D 1984/8/6 2 2 2
Lake Monoun Cameroon L Central Africa G 1984/8/16 37 37 1 1 area residents 1000 1038
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia T/M 1984/9/5 20,000 20,000 20,000
Mayon Philippines M Southeast Asia T/M(1) 1984/9/10 1 1 70,00073,000 73,000 73,001
Ontake Japan H East Asia D 1984/9/14 29 29 29
Galunggung Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1984/9/ half of village 500 500
Etna Italy H European Union S 1984/10/16 1 1 15+ 30 1400 1400 1431
Kilauea USA H North America L 1985/1/ 300 300 300
Sangeang Api Indonesia L Southeast Asia L/T 1985/7/30 10781242 1242 1242
Canlaon Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1985/10/5 4 km area 1000 1000
residents
Nevado del Colombia M South America M 1985/11/13 23,080 23,080 4470 4470 50,000 50,000 77,550
Ruiz
Nevado del Colombia M South America T/M 1986/1/4 15,000 15,000 15,000
Ruiz
Concepcion Nicaragua L Central America G 1986/2/4 some homes 15 15
abandoned
Piton de la Reunion H East Africa L 1986/3/19 8 houses/51 51 250430 430 430
Fournaise
Tacana Mexico M Central America S/T 1986/5/7 17,000 17,000 17,000
Akita Japan H East Asia G 1986/5/8 1 1 1
Yakeyama
Iliboleng Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1986/5/28 570 570 570
Nevado del Colombia M South America H 1986/6/12 1700 1700 1700
Ruiz
Stromboli Italy H European Union T 1986/7/24 1 1 1
Lake Nyos Cameroon L Central Africa G 1986/8/21 1746 1746 > 845 845 4430 4430 7021
Oshima Japan H East Asia I 1986/11/15 1 1 1
Kilauea USA H North America L 1986/11/20 2830 houses 90 all community 300 390
residents = 100
homes
Oshima Japan H East Asia T/L 1986/11/21 10,00013,000 12,000 12,000
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America P 1986/12/1 many families 500 500
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1986/12/31 1 1 1
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T 1987/1/21 2735 27 < 3000 3000 3027
Kilauea USA H North America L 1987/2/22 some residents 3 3
Etna Italy H European Union T 1987/4/17 2 27 7 9
Kilauea USA H North America L 1987/5/ 3 homes 9 9
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T 1987/6/14 600 600 600
Kilauea USA H North America L 1987/9/21 7 homes 21 21
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1987/10/30 a few families 15 15
Oshima Japan H East Asia T 1987/11/16 150 150 150
Kilauea USA H North America L 1987/12/3 1 house 3 3
Ranakah Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1987/12/28 420020,000 13,000 13,000
Nevado del Colombia M South America H 1988/1/4 15,000 15,000 15,000
Ruiz
207
Table 3 (continued)
208
Gamalama Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1988/2/12 3500 3500 3500

Nevado del Colombia M South America T 1988/3/22 several 500 500
Ruiz hundred/1900
Banda Api Indonesia L Southeast Asia T(2)/L(1) 1988/5/8 3 to 7 4 430 homes 2500 500010,000 7500 7504
/2500
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America T 1988/7/6 1 11 1 2
Makian Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1988/7/17 15,000 15,000 15,000
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1988/7/30 1 1 1
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1988/11/ 32 houses 160 160
Tokachi Japan H East Asia M 1988/12/24 ~800 800 800
Lonquimay Chile H South America T/G 1988/12/25 1 1 10,000 10,000 10,001
Akita Japan H East Asia 1988// 3? 3 3
Yakeyama
Poas Costa Rica H Central America G 1989/1/ 681 and residents 681 681
in nearby towns
Aso Japan H East Asia G 1989/2/12 1 1 1
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America L 1989/3/7 120 120 120
Stromboli Italy H European Union I 1989/3/26 1 1 1
Soputan Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1989/4/22 500 3000 500 500
Galeras Colombia M South America T 1989/5/4 2000 2000 2000
IzuTobu Japan H East Asia S 1989/6/30 1822 22 300 300 322
Lonquimay Chile H South America T/G 1989/6/ 10,000 10,000 10,000
Kirishima Japan H East Asia G 1989/8/26 2 2 2
Nevado del Colombia M South America M 1989/9/1 < 5000 5000 5000
Ruiz
Esa 'Ala Papua New M Oceania S 1989/12/10 Dobu Is.; Oiau 1000 1000
(Dawson Strait Guinea area
Group)
Redoubt Alaska H Aleutians T/M 1989/12/14 15 evac and 260 260
~245 affected
on aircraft
Redoubt Alaska H Aleutians M 1990/1/2 7 7 7
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia T(32)/M 1990/2/10 3236 35 3281 81 500 houses 2500 42,77060,000 42,270 42,386
Redoubt Alaska H Aleutians M 1990/2/15 7 7 7
Poas Costa Rica H Central America G 1990/3/ residents in 30,000 30,000
nearby towns
Mammoth USA H North America G 1990/3/ 1 1 1
Mountain
Anatahan Mariana Is. H Oceania S 1990/4/4 23 23 23
Kilauea USA H North America L 1990/4/4 63 houses 189 23 189
Sabancaya Peru M South America T 1990/6/5 4000 4000 4000
Rabaul Papua New M Oceania G 1990/6/24 6 6 6
Guinea
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America T 1990/7/19 4 4 4
Agrigan Mariana Is. H Oceania G 1990/8/1 9 9 9
Kilauea USA H North America L 1990/10/1 Kalapana 1000 1000
subdivision
Ahuachapan El Salvador M Central America T 1990/10/13 26 26 8 8 34
Geothermal
Field , Laguna
Verde
Nyiragongo Zaire L Central Africa S 1990/11/21 1 1 1
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1990/11/25 4 4 350? 350 354
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America D 1991/1/ 25 25 25
Planchn Chile H South America T 1991/2/9 1200 1200 1200
Peteroa
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1991/4/1 38004000 3800 3800
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1991/4/2 2000 2000 2000
Unzen Japan H East Asia M 1991/5/19 1200 1200 1200
Unzen Japan H East Asia P/D(1 1991/6/3 43 43 11 to 20 11 210 houses 630 1000012395 + 12,645 13,329
injury) ~250 on aircraft
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia T(359 T); 1991/6/14 6401202 932 184195 184 53,00030,2171 53,000 967193 >1.3 967,443 1,021,559
M(100 million + ~250
F&M); on aircraft
E(rest?)
Karthala Comoros L East Africa S 1991/6/30 1000 1000 1000
Mutnovsky Kamchatka M Aleutians I 1991/6/ 1 1 1
Lewotobi Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1991/7/19 nearby residents 1000 1000
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T/S 1991/7/27 3 3 2000 2000 1500 1500 3503
Galeras Colombia M South America S 1991/7/ 11 11 11
Hudson, Cerro Chile H South America M 1991/8/11 11 11 11
Unzen Japan H East Asia P 1991/8/31 ~190 houses 570 500 500 570
Hudson, Cerro Chile H South America T 1991/8/13 1200 1200 62,000 62,000 63,200
Hudson, Cerro Chile H South America G 1991/10/11 some 3 3
people
LokonEmpung Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1991/10/25 1 1 767910000 7679 7680
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia G 1991/4 and 5/ 5000 5000 5000
Deception Is. Antarctica Antarctica S 1992/1/19 sci team 15 15
209
Table 3 (continued)
210
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1992/2/15 15782600 2600 2600

Sabancaya Peru M South America T 1992/2/19 several towns 30,000 30,000
Ol Doinyo Tanzania L East Africa L 1992/2/26 1 1 150 1
Lengai
Dieng Indonesia L Southeast Asia G 1992/3/18 1 12 2 3
Nicaragua L Central America I/T 1992/4/10
Cerro Negro 2 2 5075 50 6000300,000 9000 9052
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1992/5/11 6 61 1 > 30 houses 150 157
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T 1992/5/ several villages 3000 3000
Marapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1992/7/5 1 15 5 6
Copahue Chile H South America G 1992/8/2 < 300 3 3
Unzen Japan H East Asia D 1992/8/8 200 houses 600 600
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America M 1992/8/ 200 200 200
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America D/I 1992/9/ 2 2 2
Manam Papua New M Oceania L 1992/10/15 2943 houses 145 500 <6000 500 645
Guinea
Kilauea USA H North America I 1992/11/22 3 3 3
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia M 1992/by 2680 26 6 to 7 6 15,700/3281 15,700 787,042803,971 787,042 802,774
end 8/ houses
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T 1993/1/10 2 villages 2000 2000
Galeras Colombia M South America T 1993/1/14 9 98 8 17
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1993/1/21 2? 2 2 houses 10 452 452 454
Wurlali Indonesia L Southeast Asia I(1)/D 1993/1/21 1 1 12 12 30004000 4000 4013
Mayon Philippines M Southeast Asia P 1993/2/2 > 7079 75 9 to > 100 100 57,000+ 57,000 57,175
Raoul Is. Kermadec H Oceania S 1993/3/9 4 4 4
Guagua Ecuador M South America T 1993/3/12 2 2 2
Pichincha
Lascar Chile H South America P 1993/4/19 70 70 70
Kilaue USA H North America L(1)/T 1993/4/19 1 1 22 22 23
(injuries)
Unzen Japan H East Asia N 1993/4/28 70,000 70,000 70,000
Krakatau Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1993/6/13 1 15 5 6
Unzen Japan H East Asia P(1)/D 1993/6/23 1 1 4930 4930 4931
(evacs)
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia N 1993/6/26 4 4 area residents 1000 1004
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America P/I 1993/8/29 1 1 1
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia M 1993/10/4 14 14 14
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1994/2/3 6 to 7 61 1 2752000 2000 2007
Yasur Vanuatu M Oceania T 1994/2/ 2 21 1 3
Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1994/3/11 100's to 1000's 1000 1000
Llaimaa Chile H South America M 1994/5/17 10 and 22 120 120
families/>50
Huila Colombia M South America D 1994/6/6 ~650 650 250 250 20,000 20,000 20,000
Colima Mexico M Central America T 1994/7/21 700/some towns 700 700
Rabaul Papua New M Oceania 1994/9/18 2>10 5 2>22 2 50,000106,000 53,000 53,007
Guinea
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T(4), I(1) 1994/10/14 142 142 142
Rinjani Indonesia L Southeast Asia L 1994/11/3 31 31 31
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1994/11/22 > 4166 64 22 >500 500 6026 6026 6590
Popocatepetl Mexico M Central America P 1994/12/21 75,000 75,000 75,000
Yakedake Japan H East Asia S 1995/2/11 4 4 4
Yasur Vanuatu M Oceania 1995/2/ 1? 1 1
Galeras Colombia M South America T 1995/3/4 8 84 4 12
Fogo Cape Verde M West Africa S 1995/4/2 20 20 1300 1300 1320
Is.
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America L 1995/4/7 1 1 inhabitants of 1000 1001
village
Kelimutu Indonesia L Southeast Asia M 1995/5/15 1 1 1
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America I 1995/6/7 many families 500 500
Soufrire Hills Montserrat H Caribbean M 1995/7/18 7500 7500 7500
Pinatubo Philippines M Southeast Asia T/P 1995/7/28 > 15,000 15,000 15,000
Parker Philippines M Southeast Asia N 1995/9/6 > 60 60 300 homes 1500 50,000 50,000 50,060
Ruapehu New Zealand H Oceania 1995/9/24 70100 70 70
Rincon de la Costa Rica H Central America N 1995/11/6 300 families 1500 1500
Vieja
Cerro Negro Nicaragua L Central America T 1995/11/19 12,000 12,000 12,000
Komagatake Japan H East Asia T/L 1996/3/5 residents 1000 1000
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1996/3/6 some villagers 1000 1000
Momotombo Nicaragua L Central America S 1996/4/10 power plant workers 15 15
Popocatepetl Mexico M Central America T 1996/4/30 5 5 5
Rabaul Papua New M Oceania T 1996/5/11 some people 1000 1000
Guinea
Stromboli Italy H European Union T 1996/6/1 some 3 3
Canlaon Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1996/8/10 3 3 some 3 13 15 21
Maderas Nicaragua L Central America N 1996/9/27 6 6 several 5 36 houses 180 250 250 261
Grimsvotn Iceland H Rest of Europe J 1996/10/1 few hundred 300 300
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America P 1996/10/10 38 38 38
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1996/10/31 > 300 300 300
Rabaul Papua New M Oceania L 1996/10/6 2 houses 10 300 300 300
Guinea
211
Table 3 (continued)
212
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America L 1996/11/11 743/3 villages 743 743
Manam Papua New M Oceania P/I 1996/12/3 4 to 13 13 29 29 > 1500 1500 1542
Guinea
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1997/1/17 1 to 6 1 several 5 30008000 3444 3450
Akita Japan H East Asia M 1997/5/11 staff and guests 100 100
Yakeyama of 2 hotels
Karangetang Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1997/6/8 3 3 400 400 403
Soufrire Hills Montserrat H Caribbean P(deaths), 1997/6/25 19 19 5 5 24
P/T(evacs)
Popocatepetl Mexico M Central America T 1997/6/30 ? 1500 evacs? 1500 1500
Hakkoda Japan H East Asia G 1997/7/12 3 3 others 3 6
Semeru Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1997/9/2 2 2 2
Adatara Japan H East Asia G 1997/9/15 4 4 4
Santa Maria Guatemala M Central America M 1998/5/28 60 families 300 300
Pacaya Guatemala M Central America T 1998/5/20 2 2 254600 254 256
Arenal Costa Rica H Central America L/P 1998/5/5 > 400450 450 450
Mammoth USA H North America G 1998/6/24 1 1 1
Mountain
Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia T(314) 1998/7/~18 314 314 6000 6000 6314
Kelut Indonesia L Southeast Asia N 1998/7/~22 10 10 10
Guagua Ecuador M South America D 1998/11/9 20 20 20
Pichincha
Colima Mexico M Central America S 1998/11/18 300758 300 300
Colima Mexico M Central America T 1999/2/10 400650 650 650
Cameroon Cameroon L Central Africa L 1999/3/28 102 homes 510 6002500 600 600
Colima Mexico M Central America H 1999/5/10 90400? 400 400
Telica Nicaragua L Central America H 1999/6/5 6000 6000 6000
Colima Mexico M Central America T 1999/7/17 400? 400 400
Marapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1999/8/5 3 3 3
Cerro Negro Nicaragua L Central America T 1999/8/5 several hundreds 2195 2195
2195
Mayon Philippines M Southeast Asia T 1999/9/23 20005000 2000 2000
Guagua Ecuador M South America T 1999/10/3 2 2 1,200,400 1,200,400 1,200,402
Pinchincha
Tungurahua Ecuador M South America T 1999/10/5 3 3 3
Tungurahua Ecuador M South America T 1999/10/16 1 14 4 22,00026,000 26,000 26,005
San Cristbal Nicaragua L Central America T 1999/11/20 1004000 4000 4000
Shaded columns contain quantitative data determined from published values and ranges, or enumeration (see text for more details). Dev indicates the development level of the country.
Table 4 responsible for more than one incident in the 20th

Best estimates of the human impacts of 20th Century volcanic Century (Fig. 2). The ongoing eruption of Kilauea,
events
Hawaii has the highest number of entries, due to
Human consequence Number of events Number of people
separate episodes where people were injured or hous-
Killed 260 91 724 es destroyed. Including Kilauea, there are nine volca-
Injured 133 16 013
noes with ten or more events (~5% of all the
Homeless 81 291 457
Evacuated/affected 248 5 281 906 volcanoes included in the database) (Table 7a) and
Any incident 491 5 595 500 together these account for nearly 25% of the total
Each event may have had more than one consequence. database entries.
Summing the impacts at each volcano over the
ered globally, death or escape were the two main 20th Century shows that certain volcanoes dominate
human outcomes of volcanic activity. Repeated activ- the impact lists (Table 8). In many cases this is due to
ity at individual volcanoes may have resulted in mul- one large eruption: Pinatubo heads the lists for both
tiple evacuations of, or impacts on, the same the number of homeless and the number of people
populations, so the same people may be included affected, due to its 1991 eruption and consequent
more than once in the totals. More than one type of lahars. Nevado del Ruiz ranks second behind Pelee
impact can occur during a volcanic event so the values for deaths, but is highest for injuries. Taal appears in
in the bnumber of eventsQ column in Table 4 are not the top 10 for deaths, injuries and people affected/
necessarily exclusive. evacuated. El Chichon and Merapi rank in the top 10
The btop 10Q events for each impact are given in for deaths, injuries and homelessness. Lake Nyos is in
Table 6. Many of the homeless values depend on the top 10 for deaths and injuries and Agung appears
interpretation of qualitative statements so the rank- in the top ten lists for both the injuries and evacuated/
ing for this category should be regarded as least affected categories.
certain. The death toll is dominated by the disasters Comparison of the total impacts (Table 8) to the
at Mt. Pelee and Nevado del Ruiz, which together number of events causing the impacts at each volcano
account for more than 50% of the total. The top 10 (Table 7) shows that most of the volcanoes appearing
events combined make up nearly 90% of the total in the high rankings for number of events do not
fatalities. Nevado del Ruiz also dominates the inju- appear in the top rankings for total impacts, and
ries list, accounting for ~28% of the total number. vice versa. This suggests that the high impact totals
The immediate impacts of the 1991 Pinatubo erup- are controlled by a few big volcanic events, rather
tion and the subsequent impacts on the region from than many smaller events. Stromboli tops the list for
lahars are included as separate entries in the data- number of injury events due to its popularity as a
base and both rank highly in the homeless and tourist destination, as here the majority of injury
evacuated/affected fields. Combining these two events were to tourists near the crater. Asama and
Pinatubo events from Table 6 shows that this one Aso top the number of fatality events for similar
eruption was responsible for at least 26% of all reasons. At Asama the majority of deaths were of
people made homeless and 33% of all those evac- climbers on the volcano when it erupted, at Aso
uated/affected in the best estimates for the century. incidents involved death and injury of tourists at the
Comparison of the same events to the minimum and
maximum estimates for the database yields 48% and Table 5
12%, respectively for the homeless category, dem- Minimum and maximum estimates of values for each consequence
onstrating the uncertainty associated with the values based on the ranges of values found in the literature
in this category. Human consequence Minimum Maximum
Killed 78 840 98 293
3.2. By volcano Injured 12 315 16 096
Homeless 143 559 544 978
There are 176 different volcanoes/volcanic areas Evacuated/affected 4 933 930 6 342 265
listed in the database (Fig. 1), of which, over half were Any incident 5 146 460 6 912 032
Table 6
Top 10 events by impact
Rank Killed Injured Homeless Evacuated/affected
Event People Event People Event People Event People
1 Pelee, 1902 29 000 Nevado del 4470 Pinatubo, 1991 53 000 Guagua 1 200 400
Ruiz, 1985 Pichincha, 1999
2 Nevado del 23 080 Awu, 1966 2000 Kelut, 1919 45 000 Pinatubo, 1991 967 443
Ruiz, 1985
3 Santa Maria, 1902 8750 Ambrym, 1979 1000 Galunggung, 1982 22 000 Pinatubo, 1992 787 042
4 Kelut, 1919 5110 Dieng, 1979 1000 Pinatubo, 1992 15 700 Agung, 1963 332 234
5 Santa Maria, 1929 5000 Lake Nyos, 1986 845 Tokachi, 1926 15 000 Vesuvius, 1906 100 000
6 Lamington, 1951 2942 Taal, 1965 785 El Chichon, 1982 15 000 Popocatepetl, 1994 75 000
7 El Chichon, 1982 2000 El Chichon, 1982 500 Merapi, 1930 13 000 Soufriere 73 500
Guadeloupe, 1976
8 Lake Nyos, 1986 1746 Merapi, 1994 500 Merapi, 1961 8000 Mayon, 1984 73 000
9 Soufriere St. 1565 Merapi, 1998 314 Soufriere Hills, 1995 7500 Arenal, 1976 70 000
Vincent, 1902
10 Merapi, 1930 1369 Vesuvius, 1906 300 Colo (Una 7101 Galunggung, 1982 62 755
Una), 1983
Sum 80 562 11 714 201 301 3 741 374
(% of total) (87.8) (73.2) (69.1) (70.8)
crater caused by tephra and ballistics, and also deaths with the greatest numbers of people affected by each
due to high gas concentrations. of the impacts summed over all events. Although the
data are grouped together, the top listings in the
3.3. By country and development bkilledQ category are dominated by single eruptions
(cf. Table 6). Indonesia and the Philippines occur
Forty-six countries and island groups are repre- within the top 6 in each category; Indonesia appears
sented in the database. Table 9 contains the countries due to its high number of active volcanoes, which
Fig. 1. Location of the volcanoes contained in the database.

registered the lowest number of events for deaths,

injuries and homelessness, whilst high-income
countries are top. This shows that the average impacts
of events in middle-income countries are worse than
for high or low-income countries. The number of
countries in each development level is 20 for high-
income, 16 for middle-income, and 8 for low-income.
Antarctica and the South Sandwich Islands were not
given a development level due to their lack of perma-
nent occupation.
3.4. By region
Fig. 2. Number of times each volcano is listed in the database. The Caribbean and South America are the two
regions where the most people were killed in the
result in many events, whereas the Philippines record 20th Century, with 30,584 and 23,912 deaths, respec-
is more controlled by larger events at a few volcanoes, tively (Table 11). These results are almost entirely
such as Pinatubo, Taal and Mayon. Japan registers the accounted for by just two eruptions, the 1902 eruption
highest number of incidents (Table 10), but the data of Mt Pelee in the Caribbean (29,000 dead) and the
show that many of these were small, affecting only a 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in South America
few people. Consequently, Japan ranks lower than (23,080 dead), which rank as the two most fatal
Indonesia in the category totals, even though they eruptions in the century (see above). South-east Asia
have similarly high number of incidents. (here containing only Indonesia and the Philippines)
Looking at the countries by their development ranks highest in all other categories and accounts for
level (Fig. 3) shows that over the whole century the greatest number of events. Fig. 4 shows that in
middle-income countries were most affected by vol- most of the regions not experiencing large fatal erup-
canic incidents, registering the highest numbers of tions, more people were made homeless than killed or
deaths, injuries and evacuated/affected, whilst low- injured.
income countries suffered the highest amount of The number of events occurring in each region per
homelessness. In terms of the number of events caus- decade in the century (Fig. 5) shows a steep increase
ing the impacts (Fig. 3b), middle-income countries over time. South-east Asia and Central America show
Table 7
Number of events in the database for each impact for the top ranking volcanoes: (a) total events; (b) fatalities; (c) injuries; (d) homelessness and
(e) evacuees or persons affected
(a) Total events (b) Killed (c) Injured (d) Homeless (e) Evacuated/affected
Volcano Count Volcano Count Volcano Count Volcano Count Volcano Count
Kilauea 20 Asama 13 Stromboli 8 Kilauea 10 Pacaya 12
Merapi 18 Merapi 11 Merapi 7 Merapi 9 Merapi 10
Asama 14 Aso, Semeru 9 Aso 6 Karangetang 5 Taal 8
Aso, Pacaya 12 Kelut 7 Sakura-jima Semeru 4 Kilauea 6
Semuru Tateyama Kilauea 5 Etna, Kelut 3 Mt. St. Helens
Karangetang 10 Dieng 6 Arenal 4 Unzen Nevado del Ruiz
Sakura-jima Karangetang Karangetang Aso, Dieng 2 Pinatubo
Santa Maria Etna, Hakone 5 Asama, Dieng 3 Manam Cerro Negro, Colima 5
Etna, Stromboli 9 Mayon Etna, Pacaya Miyake-jima Karangetang, Manam
Taal Sakura-jima Taal Pinatubo, Rabaul Mayon, Unzen
Santa Maria Santa Maria
Usu, Villarica
Table 8
The most calamitous volcanoes in the 20th Century by human impact
Volcano Sum Volcano Sum Volcano Sum Volcano Sum
1 Pelee 29 000 Nevado Del Ruiz 4470 Pinatubo 68 700 Pinatubo 1 777 485
2 Nevado Del Ruiz 23 080 Awu 2000 Kelut 52 500 Guagua Pichincha 1 200 400
3 Santa Maria 13 780 Dieng 1252 Merapi 32 275 Agung 332 234
4 Kelut 5478 Taal 1084 Galunggung 22 000 Mayon 200 000
5 Lamington 2942 Ambrym 1000 El Chichon 15 000 Arenal 122 841
6 El Chichon 2001 Merapi 932 Tokachi 15 000 Taal 100 925
7 Lake Nyos 1746 Lake Nyos 845 Soufriere Hills 7500 Vesuvius 100 000
8 Merapi 1590 El Chichon 503 Colo (Una Una) 7101 Nevado del Ruiz 87 200
9 Soufriere St Vincent 1565 Vesuvius 301 Etna 6350 Popocatepetl 76 500
10 Taal 1525 Agung 296 Mayon 6000 Campi Flegrei 76 000
particular large increases in incident numbers towards ers reported and also how the impacts were caused.
the end of the century, whereas the first half of the Pyroclastic currents were the main cause of death
century is dominated by events in East Asia. This (Table 12 and Fig. 6), followed by primary lahars,
trend is in part due to increasing population densities which were also the principal cause of injuries. Tephra
close to volcanic centres in these regions. were responsible for the highest numbers of people
made homeless and evacuated/affected. No cases of
3.5. By phenomena causing incident famine are reported in the Century, but disease was
responsible for deaths following the eruptions of
Ninety-four percent of the events in the database Santa Maria, 1902, and Pinatubo, 1991.
have one or more causes associated with them. In the Table 12 demonstrates that the different phenome-
cases where multiple causes are given, the exact pro- na had different human outcomes. For example, an
portions of deaths etc due to each are not always clear. average of 16 people were killed for every one person
In five instances in the database, two phenomena injured by pyroclastic currents, whereas for tephra 12
seem to have been equally responsible for impacts people were killed for every one injured, but over 700
and evacuations. For the purposes of quantitative people were evacuated or affected. Historical erup-
evaluation, numbers were divided equally between tions such as the Laki Craters, 17831784 (e.g., Stein-
the two causes in these instances. Table 12 sum- grimsson, 1784) and Tambora, 1815 (e.g., Post, 1977)
marises the numbers of people affected by each phe- have shown that illness and famine following volcanic
nomenon during the 20th Century. These values are eruptions can cause evacuations and relocation of
approximate only, due to the uncertainty in the numb- people, although no examples of these outcomes
Table 9
Top 10 countries by impact
Country Sum Country Sum Country Sum Country Sum
1 Martinique 29 000 Indonesia 5169 Indonesia 128 282 Philippines 2 136 125
2 Colombia 23 763 Colombia 4732 Philippines 76 200 Ecuador 1 226 420
3 Guatemala 13 804 Philippines 1386 Japan 20 218 Indonesia 721 378
4 Indonesia 10 272 Vanuatu 1001 Mexico 17 528 Italy 183 500
5 Papua New Guinea 3499 Cameroon 846 Montserrat 7500 Costa Rica 161 022
6 Philippines 3279 Japan 690 Costa Rica 6780 Mexico 159 238
7 Mexico 2109 Mexico 503 Italy 6560 Japan 138 111
8 Cameroon 1783 Italy 424 Papua New Guinea 6155 Colombia 109 211
9 St Vincent 1565 Costa Rica 304 Guatemala 5000 Chile 87 779
10 Japan 728 Chile 203 Western Samoa/Tonga 5000 Papua New Guinea 75 800
Table 10 Table 11
Countries registering ten or more incidents in the 20th Century Impacts by region
Country Number of incidents Region % of % of % of % of % of Number
Japan 102 killed injured homeless affected total of events
Indonesia 99 affected
Philippines 36 Aleutians 0.007 0.001 0.001 9
USA 31 Antarctica 0.001 0.001 3
Guatemala 26 Caribbean 33.344 1.724 2.573 1.777 2.363 7
Italy 24 Central 2.637 5.346 0.449 1.105 1.115 9
Chile 20 Africa
Papua New Guinea 16 Central 17.924 5.633 10.323 7.095 7.236 66
Costa Rica 13 America
Mexico 12 East Africa 0.023 0.012 1.047 0.169 0.160 9
Colombia 12 East Asia 0.796 4.309 6.937 2.611 2.827 104
Vanuatu 11 European 0.300 2.648 2.251 3.477 3.411 25
Nicaragua 11 Union
Iceland 0.002 0.309 0.107 0.101 4
North 0.071 0.881 1.027 0.100 0.154 31
were recorded in the 20th Century. Conversely, the America
hazard of eruption is unlikely to cause death or injury, North 0.016 0.125 0.135 0.128 4
unless by accident or stress during evacuation. Atlantic
Oceania 4.038 7.500 4.514 1.739 1.819 42
South 26.070 30.887 0.412 27.602 26.584 42
3.6. By year America
South 0.005 0.005 1
The number of recorded incidents in each year Atlantic
shows a large increase with time. This may reflect South-east 14.774 40.935 70.159 54.077 54.096 135
various factors including increased reporting of vol- Asia
canic events; increased use of mass evacuation in risk
mitigation; increasing populations at risk, and any volcanic activity over the same time, which is attrib-
actual changes in global volcanic activity with time. uted to improved reporting of smaller events (Simkin
There is a particularly strong increase from the 1970s. and Siebert, 1994). Normalising the incident data with
This increase could be artificial, due to increased the Smithsonian Institutions record does not remove
reporting of events, or a real function of either in- the trend, however (Fig. 7), suggesting that the in-
creased activity or increased population densities in crease in incidents is real. The years of World War II
hazardous areas. The Smithsonian Institutions record are often highlighted as being a time of reduced
of eruptions does show an apparent slight increase in activity reporting due to the global situation, however,
Fig. 3. Distribution of impacts by country development level (a) total numbers of people impacted summed over all events in the 20th Century
(note logarithmic scale), (b) number of events.
Fig. 4. Distribution of fatalities, injuries and homelessness by region. Pie chart size represents the relative magnitude of the 3 combined impacts
(regions with null or very low values are shown as triangles).
1944 stands out in the normalised data as being well To examine the worst volcanic incidents, the EM-
above the trend for the number of incidents. No DAT criteria for a bdisasterQ (10 or more persons killed
incidents are recorded in 1908, 1915, 1916, 1922, or 100 or more persons affected) were applied to the
1927, 1935, 1942 and 1945. database. This revealed that about 60% (296) of the
Fig. 5. Number of incidents occurring in each region by decade in the 20th Century. The curves are stacked for clarity.
Table 12
Impacts by cause
Code Phenomenon Killed Injured Homeless Evac/affected
(% of events) (% of events) (% of events) (% of events)
D Debris flows/avalanches 741 (2.4) 267 (3.7) 4600 (2.5) 28 950 (1.6)
E Epidemic 5180 (0.7)
F Famine
G Gas/acid rain 2016 (14.5) 2860 (6.6) 58 138 (3.6)
H Volcanic unrest 33 000 (2.8)
I Other indirect 167 (4.8) 161 (3.7) 1000 (0.4)
J Jokulhlaups 300 (0.4)
L Lava 664 (4.5) 56 (6.6) 21 490 (33.3) 113 052 (13.3)
M Primary lahars 29 937 (12.5) 5022 (5.9) 91 400 (12.3) 1 078 331 (10.5)
N Secondary lahars/flooding 797 (7.3) 178 (5.1) 1925 (6.2) 84 415 (4.4)
P Pyroclastic currents 44 928 (13.5) 2762 (15.4) 72 481 (23.5) 521 859 (11.7)
S Seismicity 391 (2.4) 66 (2.9) 1448 (2.5) 165 700 (10.1)
T Tephra 6047 (29.1) 4321 (43.4) 97 513 (22.2) 3 103 580 (36.7)
W Tsunami (waves) 661 (2.4) 300 (1.5)
U Unknown 195 (5.9) 20 (5.1) 600 (1.2) 93 581 (5.6)
Numbers in brackets give the percentage of events caused by each phenomenon for each impact.
491 20th Century events could be classed as a disas- that the sums of the impacts are dominated by a few
ter. These disasters have a very similar temporal dis- events. Fig. 9 demonstrates that even though there is
tribution to that of all the events (Fig. 8). an increase in events with time, this does not correlate
Increases over time are seen in each of the indi- with an increase in the numbers of people affected
vidual impact categories (Fig. 9), but the steepest rise with time.
occurs in the evacuated and affected category. Again,
this may be an artificial increase due to improved
collection of data and reporting of impacts or it may 4. Discussion
be a genuine reflection of evacuations becoming more
frequent as the century progressed. Looking at the An important aspect of disaster mitigation is the
impact categories by year confirms previous results compilation of reliable statistics on injuries and deaths
from past events (Woo, 1999). This new database
Fig. 6. Percentage distribution by cause for fatalities, injuries,

homelessness and persons evacuated/affected. Definition of the Fig. 7. Number of incidents per year normalised by the number of
letter codes is given in Table 12. eruptions starting that year.
considerable uncertainty within the historical records,

particularly for people made homeless. Error ranges
for the impacts based on estimated maximums and
minimums are 14%/+7% for fatalities, 23%/+ 1%
for injuries, 50%/+87% for homelessness, 7%/
+ 21% for evacuated and affected. The larger negative
uncertainties come from rounding up and over-esti-
mation of numbers of people in reports, and the use of
potentially inflated default values in the quantitative
evaluation of the database. Actual positive error
uncertainties will also be higher due to under-report-
ing of events. This poor data quality limits the con-
clusions that can be drawn from any detailed
numerical analysis of the data.
Fig. 8. The number of events that can be classified as a disaster
compared to the total number of events per year.
The impact totals are dominated by a few erup-
tions, in particular Mt Pelee, Martinique, 1902; Pina-
compiles volcano-related human impacts for the re- tubo, Philippines, 1991, and Nevado del Ruiz,
cent historical period and allows analysis of these data Colombia, 1985. Activity at Guagua Pichincha in
by impact, volcano, country or region. Maximum and 1999 caused widespread ashfall over the city of
minimum estimates of the impacts show that there is Quito and this consequently also ranks very highly
Fig. 9. The number of events and human consequences per year for (a) fatalities; (b) injuries; (c) homelessness and (d) evacuations/affected.
Important eruptions for each impact are highlighted.
in the affected category. This event is a good example 1815 Tambora eruption, which has the largest histor-
of the changing definition of baffectedQ and its inclu- ical death toll. Both of these totals reflect the combi-
sion in the database was only made possible by the nation of volcanic phenomena and population
reporting of the numbers involved. Such values have distribution. The Pelee total, for instance, was limited
rarely been reported previously (area covered by ash by the size of the town of St. Pierre, which was
is more common) hindering attempts to include other destroyed by pyroclastic currents in the eruption.
ashfall events in the database. Chester et al. (2001) believed that, in many respects,
Some volcanoes appear in the top 10 for more than it was only a matter of chance that total casualties
one impact, but this is often due to one large eruption were not higher in the 20th Century. Some of the
with many severe impacts rather than several smaller largest eruptions occurred in regions with low popu-
events. Differences in the top 10 lists by impactfor lation densities (e.g., Katmai, Alaska 1912 and Bezy-
example the high fatalities, but minimal evacuees at mianny, Kamchatka 1955/56) and thus had minimal
Mt Pelee compared to the massive evacuation and human impacts. Historically, epidemic following large
comparatively low death toll at Pinatuboappear to eruptions was a major cause of volcano-related death.
reflect improvements in risk management (monitor- It is estimated that ~49,000 died from disease and
ing, hazard assessment, mitigation and response) with famine following the Tambora eruption, for example.
time. The increase in evacuation events over the 20th In the 20th Century, such large-scale epidemics were
Century shown by the database, may reflect not only rare. This change is, in part, related to the growth of
increasing populations living in hazardous areas, but aid agencies, which can rapidly react to natural dis-
also increased awareness of volcanic risks, and a asters, and increased disaster preparedness. Following
willingness in many quarters to undertake costly and the 1994 eruption of Rabaul, for example, local health
disruptive civil defence procedures (Chester et al., services were able to deal with all casualties due to the
2001). For example, nearly 300,000 people have preparedness of the population (Dent et al., 1995).
been evacuated during volcanic crises in Indonesia Disease is still a threat though, as evidenced by fatal
alone between 1970 and 1999. The increase may be outbreaks of measles and gastro-intestinal ailments in
also due to increased reporting of evacuations over evacuation centres following the 1991 eruption of
time. Not all displacement of people occurs in con- Pinatubo (Bautista, 1996).
trolled evacuations, but there is frequently insufficient Pyroclastic currents and lahars (both primary and
information to determine how spontaneous or ordered secondary) caused the greatest number of deaths and
evacuations were, particularly for the earlier events in injuries in the 20th Century, but the most frequent
the database. cause of both was tephra (including ballistics). Tephra
The dominance of Kilauea in the number of total was also responsible for the highest numbers of peo-
events and homeless events is due to many separate ple made homeless and evacuated/affected. Simkin et
incidents over time, mostly during the ongoing erup- al. (2001) suggested that greater focus should be put
tion that began in 1983. It is debatable whether cases on tephra hazards and our results concur that the
such as this, with one long-term period of activity effects of tephra fall should not be overlooked. How-
causing many events, should be combined under a ever, even though tephra fatality events have a high
single record. In the Kilauea case, we believe that the frequency, the numbers of deaths involved each time
entry of each incident separately is justified, due to the are small and it is unlikely that tephra fall would ever
long time period between each one and the changes of cause the thousands of casualties seen in pyroclastic
activity at the volcano needed for them to occur in current and lahar events. Perhaps of greater impor-
most cases. Grouping all the impacts in one event tance, is the capability of tephra to affect large areas
represented by the start date of the eruption would and its role in forcing evacuations. These impacts are
give a misleading indication of the course of human not necessarily as tractable as Simkin et al. (2001)
impacts over time. This is also true for the incidents proposed.
associated with the ongoing eruption of Sakura-jima. Tilling (1990) calculated an average for eruption-
The maximum death toll in the 20th Century of caused deaths per year of 845 for the 20th Century
29,000 from Mt Pelee is approximately half that of the and 315 for the 17th19th Centuries. This work
increases this 20th Century value to 917, partly due Baxter (2000) considered survivability ratios for
to its inclusion of deaths not directly associated with pyroclastic currents from eight large historical erup-
eruptions. Tables 7 and 8 demonstrate, however, that tions. These are the ratio between the number of
the human impacts at each volcano are not correlated people killed and the number of people injured by a
with the number of eruptions that occur. Instead, the single phenomenon. Such information is useful in risk
incident totals are dominated by uncommon large management especially in planning for search-and-
events. For this reason, and because not all the rescue efforts. However, the information required to
events in the database are linked to eruptive activity calculate ratios is often lacking; obtaining accurate
(and in some cases multiple events are due to only numbers for the numbers of people killed is rarely
one period of activity), comparisons of the number straightforward and constraining numbers of people
and magnitude of incidents with the number of injured is even harder, as minor injuries are not always
eruptions at each volcano are not particularly justi- reported. Many reports fail to state the numbers of
fied. Similarly, the calculation of average impacts per people affected, let alone those who managed to avoid
event is strongly dependent on the circumstances at and/or survive volcanic phenomena. The additional
individual volcanoes. Extrapolation of averages to uncertainty regarding cause of impact in some
future events ignores the fact that these circum- instances limits the number of events in this database
stances may have changed considerably since the for which survivability could be calculated with any
last event. Given the apparent increase in the number confidence. The ratio of killed/injured also conceals
of events affecting people over the course of the information regarding the nature of injuries sustained;
century, the calculation of repeat times of large peoples locations at the time of the event; response
events also does not seem valid. The low recurrence patterns; socio-economic status, etc., all of which may
rates at the start of the century will result in under- have a strong influence on individual vulnerability.
estimation of repeat times, an outcome that is detri- Such factors are relevant to consideration of numbers
mental for risk assessment. of people likely to ignore evacuation orders or exclu-
The events that contribute the highest numbers of sion zones. There appears to be very little information
affected people in the database are large eruptions that on the numbers of people who disobey evacuation
impacted wide areas of the surrounding land and local orders and mention is generally only given if an
populations, and caused many casualties and/or re- incident occurs, biasing reports towards greater
quired wide-scale evacuation. There are, however, a impacts and lower survivability.
significant number of much smaller events that affect- The geographical distribution of volcanic disasters
ed small numbers of people. In many of these is strongly influenced by the proximity of volcanic
instances, the impacts were to tourists and visitors activity to areas of high population density. Analyses
(including climbers and students), or scientists. of the global distribution of human population with
Deaths and injuries to tourists on volcanoes during respect to recent volcanism (Ewert and Harpel, 2004;
the 20th Century amount to at least 156 and 218, Small and Naumann, 2001) find that high population
respectively, and for scientists 47 (including the densities lie closer to volcanoes in Southeast Asia and
crew of a lost research ship (Minakami, 1956)) and Central America than in other volcanic regions. Our
10, respectively. At volcanoes such as Asama, Aso data reveal that over the course of the 20th Century
and Stromboli the majority of casualties have been these were the two regions experiencing the most
tourists. In most cases, the categories of affected and rapid rise in volcanic incidents with time. Additional-
evacuated are made up by local populations, but there ly, these regions together with South America were
are some events, such as Llaima, 1979, Ruapehu, the worst affected by volcanic incidents in the whole
1995 and Akita Yakeyama, 1997, where tourists century. Some of the densest populations in volcani-
were evacuated from hazardous areas. Minor injuries cally active areas are in tropical developing countries,
at volcanoes generally go unreported. These include which are currently experiencing sustained population
fall injuries, which are probably not uncommon growth (Small and Naumann, 2001). This will result
amongst visitors to volcanoes unfamiliar with or ill- in significantly more people being at risk from volca-
equipped for the difficult terrain encountered. nic hazards in the near future than in the past (this
increasing trend is already apparent in the incident political or cultural reasons, and propagation of errors
data). In order to quantify this risk, Ewert and Harpel through different catalogues and literature. Some of
(2004) have constructed a Volcano Population Index these errors have been uncovered in other catalogues
(VPI), which gives the numbers of people living close during the compilation of this database. Undoubtedly,
to volcanoes. They calculate two measures of the VPI despite our best endeavours, some occur in this data-
based on radii of 5 and 10 km from the vent. A review base. In disasters, most reporting sources have a vest-
of recent small to moderate volcanic activity in Cen- ed interest in the numbers they report, and figures are
tral America (Ewert and Harpel, 2004) showed that inflated or deflated according to socio-political con-
people within 5 km of a threatening volcano almost siderations (Sapir and Misson, 1992). To attempt to
certainly will be evacuated and people within 5 to 10 account for this, we have listed all the ranges of
km may be evacuated depending on conditions. numbers given in different sources within the data-
The development level results show that the aver- base. Appreciation of these limitations is essential for
age number of people impacted per event is substan- the appropriate use of the data.
tially higher in middle-income countries than in high- One of the problems found during compilation of
income countries. The high number of fatality events the database was the sometimes-ambiguous nomen-
seen in high-income countries is, in part, due to the clature of impact reporting. For instance, the word
Japanese record, where there are many events causing bcasualtyQ could be taken to mean either killed or
only one or two fatalities. Analysis of all types of injured. The use of baffectedQ also seems to change
disaster (Shah, 1983), also found that low-to-middle with time. In earlier events in the database, it appears
income countries suffered the greatest social impact. that the evacuated/affected category contains mainly
Unfortunately, the exposure to volcanic hazards for evacuee numbers. Towards the end of the century,
developing countries is significant and increasing, numbers of people severely affected by ashfall also
and, at the start of the 1990s, more than 500 million start to be included. There is clearly a distinct differ-
people (Tilling and Lipman, 1993) (~9% of the ence between the two impacts and there is a need to
worlds population (Small and Naumann, 2001)) separate out the two categories. This requires clear
were at risk from volcanic hazards. and accurate reporting. For evacuations, the length of
A range of eruption impacts has been examined time that populations are displaced would also be a
here, but there are still others that might prove useful useful measure. It also may be that people are unable
in risk management, such as the area affected and to return to their homes after activity ceases or choose
economic costs (including immediate financial dam- not to. Another issue is that impact data generally do
age and longer-term economic effects). Other criteria not take account of people who may have been af-
could also be included in the event definitions, in- fected by respiratory problems during eruptions. Such
cluding eruption magnitude (e.g., the volcanic explo- an impact is difficult to measure, particularly as the
sivity index (VEI) or that proposed by Pyle (2000) effect on health may be short-lived or take many years
based on the mass of erupted lava or tephra) or lahar to be manifest, and requires very careful epidemio-
volume, etc. Such measures, however, detract from logical work to identify.
the fact that vulnerable populations, not just large From a global disaster perspective, volcanic inci-
eruptions, are necessary for disaster to occur and dents do not feature high on the list in terms of
that each eruption circumstance will be different. In number of events or number of people affected or
addition, such criteria cannot be applied to all the killed. The maximum number of fatalities in any
events listed in the database. one 20th Century volcanic event was 29,000. For
One of the primary uses of natural hazard data is in comparison, the bworlds worstQ geological disaster,
informing risk management policy. However, the lim- the Tangshan earthquake in July 1976, killed 240,000
itations of the data must be recognised. Hittelman et people in the Peoples Republic of China (Shah,
al. (2001) reviewed some of the main causes of error 1983). In the 20th Century, the disaster record was
in natural hazard data catalogues. These include trans- dominated in number by hydro-meteorological events
lation, re-entering and interpretation of source data, (CRED, 2004; Shah, 1983). Comparison of the
errors in the source data, manipulation of facts for values from this database with those from other di-
saster types listed in EM-DAT (Table 13) shows that Table 14

volcanoes were responsible for only about 0.28% of Comparison of the contents of volcanic incident databases that
cover the 20th Century
disaster fatalities in the 20th Century. Errors with the
Source Period of cover in Number of
EM-DAT values are discussed below, but this percent-
the 20th Century events listed
age will be of the correct magnitude.
CRED-EMDAT 19001999 163
Simkin and Siebert (1994) 19001994 193
4.1. Comparison with other databases fatal events
Tanguy et al. (1998) 19001997 27
We believe that the new database is a considerable This databaseall 19001999 491
improvement over others available (Table 14), al- This databasedisasters 19001999 296
This databasefatal events 19001999 260
though it almost certainly retains errors that might
be corrected in future. The database contains ~23%
more fatality entries than the Simkin and Siebert et al. (2001) also believe, as we do for the 20th
(1994) database for the same period (there are 22 Century, that much of the increase seen in fatalities
fatality entries after 1994 in this database) and is real and is linked to global population increase and
N50% more disaster events than EM-DAT. Simkin not to eruption frequency, which has remained rough-
et al. (2001) used a total of ~215 fatal eruptions in ly constant through recent centuries.
the 20th Century in their assessment of historical Previous estimates of fatalities in the 20th Centu-
volcano fatalities, compared with 260 in this database. ry are 86,224 (Tanguy et al., 1998) and 98,376
They analysed eruption fatalities from the 14th to 20th (CRED, 2004). Our result of 91,724 increases the
Centuries. Over this time period they found that py- Tanguy et al. (1998) value by 6%, by the inclusion
roclastic currents were responsible for the highest of smaller events. Errors in EM-DAT (discussed
number of fatalities, and our database shows that below) are responsible for its larger value. Compar-
this finding holds for the 20th Century. They found ison of the causes of the 20th Century fatalities to
that the greatest number of fatal eruptions occurred in those from 16001899 (Table 15) reveals a change in
the 20th Century, and suggested that an average of 2 the dominant phenomena in these time periods. Dis-
4 fatal eruptions occurred per year in recent decades. ease, starvation and tsunami were responsible for the
In agreement with this figure, we find that since 1950 highest proportion of fatalities in the early historical
the average number of fatal events per year was 3.5. period, with the eruptions of the Laki Craters, 1783,
Pre-1950, the average was much lower at 1.7. Simkin Tambora, 1815, and Krakatoa, 1883 (tsunami), con-
tributing the majority of these deaths. In the 20th
Century, the dominant phenomena were pyroclastic
Table 13 currents and lahars. This change in phenomena in
Fatalities from all disasters in the 20th Century (CRED, 2004) part represents the availability of better aid and care
Disaster type Fatalities for those affected by eruptions, which has reduced
Drought 10 009 662 the hazard of famine and epidemic in recent decades.
Earthquake 1 870 590 It is also due to the dominance of the 20th Century
Epidemic 6 790 363 values by a few eruptions that had high death tolls
Extreme temperature 19 406
Famine 7 808 299
caused by these phenomena, in particular Mt Pelee,
Flood 7 466 563 1902 (pyroclastic currents), and Nevado del Ruiz,
Industrial accident 35 778 1985 (lahars).
Miscellaneous accident 117 078
Landslide/avalanche 55 425 4.1.1. Issues with CRED-EMDAT
Transport accident 127 970
Volcano 98 376
Examination of the EM-DAT data reveals the pres-
Wave/surge 12 839 ence of a variety of errors in the database. These are
Wild fire 2479 errors both of omission (events are missing) and
Wind storm 1 209 055 commission (events have been included falsely)
Grand total 35 623 883 (Table 16). Of the events in the new database that
Table 15
Deaths by volcanic hazards from 16001899 (after Blong, 1984) compared to the 20th Century (this database) and the combined totals
Hazard 16001899 % 19001999 % Total %
Lava 900 0.482 664 0.72 1564 0.56
Tephra/ballistic 7934 4.251 6047 6.59 13 981 5.02
Pyroclastic flows/ 18 208 9.757 45 669 49.97 63 877 22.95
debris avalanches
Lahar/jokulhlaups 8308 4.452 30 734 33.51 39 042 14.03
Seismic activity 57 0.031 391 0.43 448 0.16
Tsunami 43 949 23.550 661 0.72 44 610 16.03
Atmospheric effects 60 0.032 60 0.02
Gases and acid rains 2 0.001 2016 2.20 2018 0.73
Disease, starvation etc 92 150 49.379 5180 5.65 97 330 34.97
Other indirect 167 0.18 167 0.06
Unknown 15 049 8.064 195 0.21 15 244 5.48
Total 186 617 100 91 724 100 278 341 100
would rank as a disaster on the EM-DAT specifica- their details (Table 16). This includes listings under
tions, only 43% have a CRED listing (some have the wrong year (but does not consider month or day
more than one!) and 167 events are missing from within the year); events attributed to the wrong vol-
EM-DAT. These include the 1929 eruption of Santa cano, or an unnamed volcano; listings with the wrong
Maria, Guatemala that killed approximately 5000 and country; events that were incorrectly associated with a
the repeat evacuations of the Campri Flegrei area, non-volcanic cause; and events that did not appear to
Italy, which involved up to 40000 people each time. happen in that no other reference to them could be
Eleven events are listed twice or more, with conse- found (unusual for a bdisasterQ). There are also three
quently at least one listing containing inaccurate dates. records where two nearby eruptions are entered as one
Worryingly, N 36% of the original CRED disaster disaster event. The specification of the correct volcano
events are significantly inaccurate with respect to name is very important for clarity and interpretability,
particularly as many volcanoes have similar names. In
Table 16
many cases, the name given in EM-DAT for the
Assessment of errors within the volcano event records of the CRED volcano refers to the cone or is a synonym. Where
EM-DAT database for the 20th Century this happens there are often double entries for the
Error Number Percentage of event. Of the correctly defined events (~60%), the
of events the total events percentage with incorrect human impacts values is
No volcano named 20 12.3 very high.
Incomplete or misspelt 15 9.2 CRED makes it clear that EM-DAT should be
volcano name treated as representative rather than precise, but if
Event listing refers to the 1 0.6
similar mistakes and errors prevail in other parts of
wrong volcano
Wrong country given 2 1.2 the database this suggests that even these representa-
Non-volcanic event 3 1.8 tive figures could be out by up to 30% (based on
No impacts given 10 6.1 comparison of impacts totals for volcanic disasters in
this database to those in EM-DAT). One of the causes
For events with impacts: of the inaccuracies is that the reports used in CRED
No month 10 6.8
Wrong month 10 6.8 tend to come from news agencies and non-governmen-
Wrong year 11 7.4 tal organisations rather than peer-reviewed papers, so
Listed twice 9 repeats 12.2 values will not have been double-checked and the
Listed 3 times 2 trebles 4.1 initial source of the information is often unknown.
Completely wrongno other 2 1.4
One of the problems with the event records in EM-
evidence for the event
DAT is that they do not discriminate between popula-
tions that are put on an increased alert status and those devall, 2000) and the economic impacts of airport
that are actually evacuated or directly affected. In a closure due to tephra are likely to be significant,
number of cases, e.g., Soputan 1984, Rabaul, 1983, although they are rarely quantified. Another important
the population that was put on alert is listed as being consideration with regard to financial damage is that
affected, whereas the actual affect may have been the relative costcalculated with respect to the coun-
minimal. Such EM-DAT records were not included trys gross national product (GNP)might be very
in the database. In some cases, the number of people different than the absolute cost. This relative cost is an
made homeless is also included in the number of important factor and, of course, correlates strongly
people affected. This results in a double count of with levels of development.
these people in the total affected category and gives The CRED database is the basis of reports com-
a falsely high representation of the human impacts of piled by the Asian Disaster Reduction Center
the activity. A similar issue exists with doubling up of (ADRC) for individual countries in the Asian region
numbers of homeless and evacuated people. and contained in the ADRC 20th Century Asian
The use of the term bAffectedQ as a category is not Natural Disasters Data Book (Asian Disaster Reduc-
straightforward in the volcanic context. The main tion Center, 2002). We have already highlighted the
problem is that many eruptions deposit substantial omission of events from EM-DAT and the repetition
amounts of tephra over large areas. Wherever this of events with different disaster codes (also called
tephra falls people will be baffectedQ. The extent to GLIDE numbers). We note the many caveats about
which they are affected depends strongly on the thick- the EM-DAT given in the CRED literature and em-
ness of tephra fallout, the presence of adsorbed mate- phasise the potential value of bcleaning-upQ the re-
rials on the ash, and the land-use of the area (e.g., cord of disaster events and incidents for the purposes
urban vs. rural). The effects may be limited to having of risk mitigation.
to clear roofs and driveways etc., or be much more
severe such as roof collapse. The minor impacts may
be considered less invasive to livelihoods than evac- 5. Conclusions
uation, yet the two are currently grouped together with
little further explanatory data. For this reason, it A new database of volcanic incidents in the 20th
would be desirable to add a new category for Century has been constructed. It reveals that about
bevacueesQ. 91,724 people were killed by volcanic phenomena
Some EM-DAT records are included based on during this time period and that the best estimate for
financial damage, but there are problems with defin- the number of people affected is about 5.6 million.
ing a disaster as an event that has significant damage These values represent an improvement on previous
in terms of finance for volcanic events. Losses from estimates, as they include minor and non-eruption
crop damage etc are often not quantifiable and people volcanic events, and correct errors present in other
who lose cattle, other animals or crops as a result of databases. The totals are dominated by the few large
volcanic activity are rarely listed. These numbers disasters that occurred in the century, including the
could be quite large, such as followed the eruption eruptions of Mt Pelee, 1902, Nevado del Ruiz, 1985,
of Lonquimay in 198990, and would probably result and Pinatubo, 1991. Indonesia and the Philippines
in the inclusion of many more events in the database. rank in the top six countries in all human impact
Information on financial losses is also often unavail- categories and these countries, and the Pinatubo erup-
able or not recorded, making consistency of records tion in particular, strongly control the result that the
difficult. Even within EM-DAT there is inconsistency most affected region was South-east Asia. Martinique
in this regard, as the 2001 eruption of Etna is includ- was the country with the highest death toll, solely due
ed, but the 1983 eruption, which also caused substan- to the Mt Pelee eruption in 1902. Middle-income
tial damage, is not. The use of financial damage would countries suffered more than low or high-income
also mean that all incidents involving aircraft should countries in terms of human impacts, and increasing
be considered. Damage to aircraft that fly through population densities in these developing countries
volcanic plumes can be substantial (Miller and Casa- mean that the risks from future activity are increasing.
The clear increase in incidents towards the end of the Appendix A. Database sources
century is representative of this trend. Pyroclastic cur-
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ities, and primary lahars were the principle cause of generated by crater-wall collapse and outpouring of
injuries. Tephra was responsible for the highest numb- the lava pool of Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica. Bulletin
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Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 148 (2005) 191 233

Volcanic disasters and incidents: A new database

Keywords: Volcano; human impacts; disaster; casualties; fatalities; evacuation

1. Introduction undating urban areas to light ashfalls that inconve-

3. Results 3.1. By number killed/injured/homeless/affected

Kirishima Japan H East Asia 1900/2/16 2 2 3 3 5

(continued on next page)

Merapi Indonesia L Southeast Asia P 1934/11/17 valley population 100 100

Cerro Azul Galapagos M South America T 1943/4/13 1 1 1

(continued on next page)

(continued on next page)

(continued on next page)

Gamalama Indonesia L Southeast Asia T 1988/2/12 3500 3500 3500

Taal Philippines M Southeast Asia S 1992/2/15 15782600 2600 2600

Table 4 responsible for more than one incident in the 20th

Fig. 1. Location of the volcanoes contained in the database.

registered the lowest number of events for deaths,

Fig. 6. Percentage distribution by cause for fatalities, injuries,

considerable uncertainty within the historical records,

saster types listed in EM-DAT (Table 13) shows that Table 14

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