Madrid (EFE).- There are almost 30 erupting volcanoes in the world, but it is a relatively small number and, in fact, “that there are only that many is more abnormal than if there were 50,” the president of the College of Geologists from Spain, Manuel Regueiro, because “the volcanic zones are very many: the edges of the tectonic plates occupy millions of kilometers”.
Some volcanoes reach an “immense” extension of territory, he added, such as the Yellowstone caldera in Wyoming or La Garita in Colorado (both in the US) and Lake Toba in Sumatra (Indonesia), but there are more threatening ones and one of they are known as Phlegrean Fields, near Naples (Italy).
Phlegrean Fields, near Naples, one of the most dangerous
This is one of the most dangerous in the world since it is “a supervolcano, which describes those that have emitted 1,000 cubic kilometers of material at some point in their history” and not only “has 24 crater mouths”, but which also “is located next to a population of 3 million people.”
The professor of the Higher Council for Scientific Research and coordinator of the Barcelona Volcanology Group, Joan Martí, also pointed out to EFE another Italian volcano, Vesuvius, which in its day already destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii, as one of the most dangerous in the world. world and adds Popocatépetl in Mexico to the list, which erupted for the last time at the end of May this year.
Seven volcanoes erupting in the Indonesian area
All this without forgetting the seven erupting volcanoes in the Indonesian area such as Karangetang or Dukono, while the so-called Ring of Fire in the Philippines has another five craters “with practically daily explosions”.
During the eruptions, “they always emit gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur” and sometimes they can launch them into the upper layers of the atmosphere, twenty or thirty kilometers high, with effects worldwide, as in the cases of Krakatoa. or the Tambora”, affirmed Martín, who recalled that “the Pinatubo in the Philippines saturated all the CO2 meters that were available at that time”.
CO2 “displaces oxygen and prevents breathing” and an example is the Canary Island of La Palma where, almost two years after the eruption of Tajogaite, “the volcano is in a state of calm but there is residual activity, high temperatures and emission of gases that prevent the return of the neighbors” to towns such as Puerto Naos or La Bombilla.
Sulfur is especially toxic, which they also emit and which can cause “contamination of water, pastures and animal feed” and, “if it combines with water, it generates sulfuric acid.”
In fact, Regueiro pointed out that the atmospheric effect of a volcano “remains over time due to the immense amount of material it puts in suspension” beyond other specific effects such as the meteotsunamis caused in January 2022 by the Hunga Tonga submarine volcano in the South Pacific area.
Despite the “enormous impact” of the gases emitted by volcanoes, these are “specific moments” compared to human emissions “that we do permanently.
In the case of Spain, Regueiro pointed out that “no eruption is expected in the short term” although, after the example of what happened in La Palma, “people who live on volcanic islands assume the risk that this could happen” at some point. moment and cites the example of the barely 400 permanent inhabitants of the Italian island of Stromboli, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, who live with a constantly erupting volcano.