First Hawaii, where the Kilauea volcano has been spewing lava and ash for more than a month. Then Guatemala, where the Volcan del Fuego volcano erupted with huge and lethal force on Sunday. But did one cause the other?
At least 75 deaths have been confirmed in Guatemala and 200 remain missing, while at least 80 houses have been destroyed in Hawaii. Given the scenes of devastation, people could be forgiven for thinking that a chain reaction of catastrophic volcanic activity is upon us.
But volcanologists say that the truth is more prosaic. Volcanoes happen all the time in unpopulated areas without us noticing, but when two highly devastating eruptions happen at once, we automatically clutch for a common cause.
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“For instance, who noticed there was one in Vanautu in April?” says Jess Johnson, a volcanologist at the University of East Anglia who recently spent two years studying Kilauea in Hawaii. “There are so many volcanoes in the world, and there’s always something happening.”
Eruptions everywhere
Historic data on volcanic eruptions catalogued by the US Smithsonian Institution’s show that the numbers of eruptions , hovering between around 65 and 80 per year.
There are also solid geological reasons why eruptions tend to be isolated events. “They are fairly local phenomena,” says Johnson. Eruptions happen when rock beneath a volcanic summit melts to form magma, but the cause of this melting is usually local in nature, within just tens of kilometres.
In Guatemala, one tectonic plate sliding over another is to blame. In Hawaii, Kilauea erupted after the floor of a lava lake at the summit collapsed, draining the material into the plumbing beneath. Different places, different geology, different causes. “If erupting volcanoes are more than 100 kilometres apart, there’s no connection,” says Johnson.
It may simply be that one large eruption heightens interest and alarm if there’s another soon after. “I’m not sure Guatemala would have got as much press if Hawaii hadn’t happened,” says Johnson. “People want to make these links, and maybe social media has a lot to do with it.”
