Travel Genius

Volcanoes are natural source of great hazards on the Earth. It is just because of the Volcanoes that various mountain ranges and other incredible landscapes are built up. The active volcanoes are the most dangerous for the people. There are lots of active volcanoes in the United States so it is better to know the about them before you pack your bags and head to the volcanic destination as it is not known when this natural calamity strikes you.

A few U.S. volcanoes have produced some of the largest and most dangerous types of eruptions in this century, while several others have threatened to erupt. The most active volcanism happens where tectonic plates under the deep under the ground are in the long, slow process of colliding.

Time Frame and history of active volcanoes

• United States ranks third after Indonesia and Japan; in terms of volcanic eruptions. About 10 percent of the more than 1,500 volcanoes that have erupted in the past 10,000 years are located in the United States.
• Most of these volcanoes are found in the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Peninsula, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest.
• Eighty percent of active volcanoes in the United States are in the Aleutian Islands, and nearly about 75 percent of the world’s volcanoes occur along the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Cascade Volcanoes in northern California, Oregon and Washington-Mount St. Helens is one of them are also part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
• Colorado, Mississippi and South Dakota each host a historic volcano. In Colorado has Dotsero Volcano that has last erupted in 2200 BC. Mississippi’s Jackson Volcano is believed to have erupted 65 million years ago, and so far there are no published estimates of the last eruption of Bear Butte in South Dakota.
• The Pacific Ocean Belt is treated as the “Ring of Fire”. The summer of 2008 saw hot action in the country’s coldest state, Alaska. Mount St. Helens, in Washington, erupted destructively and famously in 1980 and is sleeping, according to geologists–but is still considered to be active. Three volcanoes in Kasatochi, Okmok and Cleveland in Aleutian Islands exploded within a month spanning July and August of 2008.

Various types of Volcanoes

• Eruptions of Hawaiian volcanoes such as Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcano are typically non-explosive because of the composition of the magma and are ideal for scientific study. Kilauea throws out large fountains of lava.
• Cascade volcanoes are seen in the regions of Washington, Oregon, and California which are explosive and have the expanding volcanic gases in nature. In Washington Mount Baker, Mount Rainer and Mount St. Helens are the dangerous active volcanoes.
• The Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands have about 80 major volcanic centers that consist of one or more volcanoes. Few of the active ones are Redoubt Volcano, Augustine Volcano, Trident Volcano, Mount Veniaminof and Mount Spurr. The famous explosive volcano is the Yellowstone Caldera, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Thus United States is famous for active volcanoes in most of the places and all have the ability to wreak havoc on their immediate surroundings by emitting ash and toxic gases and causing mudslides.