# What big cities are most at risk from volcanoes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446 "2007-05-09T20:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/41 "2007-05-11T18:51:40Z")
Etna has been pretty active the past couple weeks. Latest news I googled was [May 8th](http://www.sabcnews.com/world/europe/0,2172,148633,00.html). It is classified as one of sixteen [‘Decade volcanoes’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade_Volcano), deemed particularly dangerous. Most of them have been mentioned already, but here they are in one bundle. ---
**Author:** ![Dancing\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Dancing\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancing_Fool)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/42 "2007-05-16T06:14:46Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] How one can get an average of 600,000 when the smallest interval is 660,000 is beyond me. [/QUOTE] Oh, that’s easy. You just draw a curve on the three points and predict the next one from that. Then say it’s overdue. Then figure out that it looks stupid if you say it’s overdue and the average is more than the time since the last one, so fudge the numbers so that the average become shorter. Nothing to it. ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/43 "2007-05-16T07:33:31Z")
I’d add Jakarta to the list, since Indonesia in general looks pretty suspect to me. The whole archipelago lies right along a major subduction zone (the site of the 2004 9.0 earthquake), and there are something like 45 active volcanoes on the island of Java alone, where Jakarta is. Catastrophic eruptions have occurred there in the past two centuries, the worst being those of Tamboro in 1815 and Krakatau in 1883. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/44 "2007-05-16T14:10:31Z")
Am I the only one questioning **Captain Murdoch** ’s intentions? It sounds like the sort of question a supervillian might ask… ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/45 "2007-05-16T21:30:58Z")
[QUOTE=DesertDog] Etna has been pretty active the past couple weeks. [/QUOTE] Longer than that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/46 "2007-05-17T02:47:58Z")
[QUOTE=Will Repair] Longer than that. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Touché, but I meant _particularly_ active, lava spilling and all that. Maybe I should have said erupting. Cool list, though, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/47 "2007-05-17T05:21:22Z")
Seattle lies directly in the path of a Rainier lahar flow, evidently in the past a Rainier lahar has reached the sound, which means everything between the mountain and the sound is at some serious potential risk. yeah I live in the Seattle area, if I buy property its gonna be on a hill top some place. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/48 "2014-09-28T12:02:59Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > I _have_ to mention the city of [Kagoshima](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=31.570053,130.594139&spn=0.147426,0.22831&t=k&z=12&om=1). It’s on the left of this satelite image. On the right, is the island of Sakura-jima, home to the Ontake volcano. Here are a few quaint pictures of Sakura-jima: > [http://storage.kanshin.com/free/img\_31/315536/k1074144041.jpg](http://storage.kanshin.com/free/img_31/315536/k1074144041.jpg) > [土砂災害防止広報センター - 土砂災害防止広報センター](http://www.sabopc.or.jp/ippin/jijibaba/photo/02-01.jpg) > [http://www.datejozo.co.jp/img/sakurajimab1.jpg](http://www.datejozo.co.jp/img/sakurajimab1.jpg) > [http://www.yado.co.jp/kankou/kagosima/oosumi/sakurajm/sakurajm01.jpg](http://www.yado.co.jp/kankou/kagosima/oosumi/sakurajm/sakurajm01.jpg) Mount Ontake suddenly erupted yesterday, with [at least 30 presumed dead.](http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/28/world/asia/japan-volcano-ontake/index.html?hpt=hp_t1) Another report said the eruption was completely unexpected, which is puzzling scientists because Japan, like the USA, monitors its volcanoes very closely. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/49 "2014-09-28T13:17:00Z")
Threads, like volcanos, can arise suddenly from a long-dormant condition. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/50 "2014-09-28T13:30:55Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Mount Ontake suddenly erupted yesterday, with [at least 30 presumed dead.](http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/28/world/asia/japan-volcano-ontake/index.html?hpt=hp_t1) > > Another report said the eruption was completely unexpected, which is puzzling scientists because Japan, like the USA, monitors its volcanoes very closely. Different Mount Ontake, that I was mentioning in my post. The Mount Ontake on Sakurajima erupts all the time. Often enough it doesn’t make the news. The Mount Ontake that erupted yesterday, is one of the tallest mountains in Japan, and sits right in the middle of Honshu. The last major eruption was 5000 years ago. And, by the way, I can see _that_ Mount Ontake from my house. The sky has been hazy lately, so I haven’t been able to spot it (or it’s new plume) since the eruption, though. It’s not anywhere close to any major city. The closest is Nagoya, and it’s still about 100 km away. It is, however a popular hiking destination because it’s beautiful and despite the high elevation, it’s not a difficult trek. We’ve been having our first days of nice weather since, well, since 2013 and with the leaves starting to turn red up there, there were a lot of people on the mountain. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446/51 "2014-09-28T22:35:15Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Five actually: > > Mauna Loa > Mauna Kea (extinct) > Kilauea (erupting continuously since 1983) > Hualalai > Kohala (extinct) Wales called, they would like their vowels back … I didn’t realize there were that many moderately active volcanoes in Hawaii. If one goes off, do any of the others sympathy rumble? [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-big-cities-are-most-at-risk-from-volcanoes/403446.md?page=2)