Volcano Eruption History Map
Significant eruptions on a world timeline — drag the year, or press play
Tips
Scrub the Centuries — or Press Play
Drag the year slider to any point since 1800, or switch to the full range and travel back to antiquity. Press play and watch eruptions flare up along the same arcs again and again — volcanoes are creatures of habit.
Circle Size and Color Show Explosivity
Each circle is one significant eruption, sized and colored by its Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) — from small yellow dots to deep-red giants. The scale is logarithmic: a VEI 6 like Pinatubo 1991 ejects ten times more material than a VEI 5. A cyan ring means the eruption triggered a tsunami.
Plate Boundaries and Volcanoes
Nearly every significant eruption lines up along the blue plate-boundary lines — the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Sunda Arc, the Mediterranean. Where one plate sinks beneath another, the water it carries down lowers the melting point of the rock above, creating the magma that eventually breaks through to the surface.
Eruptions and Earthquakes Share a Root
Turn on the earthquake layer and significant quakes appear as small dots beside the eruptions, crowding the same subduction zones. They share a cause: one plate grinding beneath another builds the strain that ruptures as earthquakes and feeds the magma that erupts as volcanoes.
Common Use Cases
Geography and Earth Science Class
Play the timeline with plate boundaries on and the Ring of Fire explains itself: eruptions and boundaries trace the same lines. Plate tectonics, demonstrated by data instead of a diagram.
Looking Up an Eruption You Know
Vesuvius 79, Krakatau 1883, Mount St. Helens 1980 — jump to the year and see the eruption at its true scale, alongside everything else erupting in that era.
News Background Research
When a volcano makes headlines, check its record: how often it has erupted, how explosive it got, and whether tsunamis or earthquakes came with it.
Travel Awareness
Heading somewhere volcanic — Hawaii, Naples, Iceland? A minute on the timeline shows how active the region has actually been through history.
Data Storytelling
Writers and educators can capture scenes like the 1815 Tambora eruption — the largest in modern history, which cooled the globe — framed exactly how they want.
Disaster Preparedness at Home
If you live near an active volcano, knowing its eruption history — frequency, explosivity, side effects — is a solid first step when reviewing your own preparations.