Probably the most exciting phase of this project is yet to come, however - seeing some interesting projects take place using our funds that might otherwise never happened. We have started the ball rolling with a pilot project in the region where STREVA is working: a community project on the slopes of Cotopaxi (Ecuador) which was designed to get school children talking to their elders about memories of past volcanic activity. The children’s notes and drawings will be made into a book and sold to tourists to raise funds for equipment for their school. And that is what it was all about in the first place! Tongariro is a volcanic complex in North island, New Zealand, that is made up of a number of vents and craters. Several of these have been active in recent years: most of the activity in the past century has been at the steep cone of Ngauruhoe, but there was a small and unexpected eruption in 2012 at the Te Mari crater. Like all the best things in life it has been ‘a journey’, starting with the fun arguments about which 30 volcanoes and what categories to choose (a mix of tectonic environments, roughly representative of global volcano distribution if you must know) and ending with us taxing our limited sales skills at a variety of events up and down the country.

Mount Fuji seen from Kinegawa, a village on the far east side of Edo. Colour woodcut by Hiroshige, 1852. Find out the devastation potential for Etna, unpredictability of Mount St. Helens and the wow factor of Stromboli in this edition of Top Trumps - Volcanoes

Teaching about the latest events?

Devastation Potential– 528. This is a very dangerous volcano, prone to destructive lahars (volcanic mudflows), and pyroclastic flows. For an even better way to find EYFS resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the EYFS resource HUB! GO TO EYFS HUB We wanted to make sure that the volcanoes we chose were representative of the different styles of eruption, from ones that ooze lava, to very explosive ones. We also wanted to include volcanoes from many different countries, so we’ve included volcanoes from as far north as Iceland, and as far south as Antarctica. We just had to include some of the most famous volcanoes, such as Yellowstone and Vesuvius, but we’ve also popped in a few unusual friends, such as Erebus (Antarctica) and Villarrica (from Chile). We hope you’ll love finding out about our volcanoes as much as we did choosing them! Explosivity (Volcanic Explosivity Index) – 7. The volcanic explosivity index is one simple measure that it is widely used to categorise the ‘size’ of explosive eruptions. The scale is a little bit like the Richter scale for earthquakes, and it runs from 0 (non-explosive) to 8 (largest known explosive eruptions from the past 100,000 years. Santorini has a long history of large explosive erupti0ns, with about 12 major eruptions known so far from the past 350,000 years. The Bronze-Age ‘Minoan’ eruption ranks at about 7 on the volcanic explosivity index, since it ejected somewhere between 30 and 90 cubic kilometres of magma during this eruption. Volcanologists are still trying to piece together the details of this eruption, but since most of the ash and pumice thrown out during the eruption ended up on the sea floor, tens to hundreds of kilometres away from the volcano, it is still quite hard to know exactly how large the eruption was.

Devastation Potential– 44. The volcano is rather less of a threat than its larger neighbour, Katla. Seeing a volcano erupt is a truly awesome sight, but there are some volcanoes you wouldn’t want to be standing too close to when they do. In fact, with some, you wouldn’t want to be standing anywhere near when they explode. So volcanologists have developed a scale that helps them measure just how explosive they are! Unpredictability– 56 Cotopaxi has had violent bursts of eruptive activity in 1744, 1768, and 1877, but it has also had periods of activity with smaller explosions and less destructive activity. This variance gives it a reasonably high score for unpredictability. Krakatau is a major caldera volcano, that lies in the sea to the west of Java, Indonesia. It is one of the many active volcanoes of the Sunda Arc, which is forming as a result of the subduction of the Australian plate beneath the Sunda plate. Krakatau is not the only volcano of this chain to have erupted with devastating consequences. Toba, to the north, was responsible for the largest known eruption of the past 100,000 years; while Tambora and Rinjani, to the south east, had major eruptions in 1815 and 1257, both of which may have had global consequences. The past activity of Mount St Helens is quite well known for about the past 5000 years, based on geological studies of the deposits of past eruptions.Devastation Potential– 648. This is a large volcano with a history of damaging eruptions next to one of the larger cities in Italy, so the devastation potential is high. Height– 1978 m. Tongariro, and its close neighbour Ngauruhoe (2287 m) haven’t reached the lofty heights of either Ruapehu (2797 m) or Taranaki (2518 m), but its still a great place for a hike. Height– 361 m. You are unlikely to win with this height! Yasur is actually just a small active cone within a much larger and more ancient volcano, Yenkahe caldera.

Santorini last erupted in a tiny eruption in 1950, from a small vent on the island of Nea Kameni, or ‘new burnt island’. The two Kameni islands are just the top of a mound of lavas and lava-domes that have extruded from the volcano over the past 3,500 years, and that now form the main centre of the volcano in the middle of the caldera. Santorini is best known for the effects of a huge explosive eruption about 3,600 years ago – known as the Minoan eruption. This devastating eruption, which is certainly one of the largest eruptions in the world from the past 10,000 years; and one of the largest eruptions in Europe of the past 40,000 years, scattered ash and pumice across millions of square kilometres, and probably led to significant economic and political disruption in the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. Unpredictability– 62. Mount St Helens remains a potent threat and, like many subduction zone volcanoes, has a long history of large eruptions. Although it is now very well monitored, the most recent eruption which started in September 2004, began with very little warning, and it is fair to say that this volcano remains rather unpredictable. For an even better way to find KS1 resources, discover tailored suggestions, and much more - visit the KS1 resource HUB! GO TO KS1 HUB Eyjafjallajökull is an ice-covered volcano in southern Iceland. It was a volcano very few people had heard of before it erupted in April 2010, scattering fine ash across northern Europe and bringing air travel to a grinding halt. The volcano itself is actually called Eyjafjöll, but this is not quite such a tongue-twister for non-native speakers of Icelandic. Explosivity (Volcanic Explosivity Index) – 6. The 1883 eruption of Krakatau was one of the largest of the past 200 years.Simply put, these should be collaborative, inclusive and imaginative. A link to enter the competition can be found here: https://volcanoestoptrumps.org/vtt-community-competition/. The closing date is 15 August 2016. Fun fact– Fuji may be the source of the oldest known Sci-Fi story: the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which dates from the 9th or 10th century. Wow! Factor An Index from 0 to 100 ( Fuji in Japan) ! Our most subjective factor. This was an interesting category to construct. There are so many things about volcanoes, that make you go wow! The pictures on the cards reflect the large differences. Some volcanoes have beautiful and impressive edifices that are very imposing or grand ( Fuji, Villarica, Mayon), some frequently erupt fantastic globules of red-spattering magma (e.g. Yasur), some leave behind traces of huge scale eruptions (e.g. Vesuvius). The range of these types is represented in our volcanoes. You can discuss with you class what aspects of volcanic activity makes them go Wow!

Fun fact– One of the many disaster movies about volcanoes is ‘ Krakatoa, East of Java‘, released in 1969. As well as mis-spelling the name of the volcano, Krakatau is, of course, west of Java! Unpredictability An index from 0 to 100 that relates to the relative variability of activity at that volcano. We used this category to find a way to express the ‘range’ of activity that a volcano has, in numbers. It is essentially an expression the range of sizes of activity and its frequency of eruption. A volcano that erupts relatively often but with little change in the style or size of activity is more predictable than one capable of producing a wide range of eruptions. An example of a low scoring ( relatively predictable) volcano is Stromboli. In the STREVA Project we are working to improve the way in which monitoring data can provide additional warnings of that activity. There is a blog here about one piece of research that looked at how satellites might improve the way we can detect early signs of activity. Deadliness– 100. Cotopaxi’s frequent eruptions combined with its capacity to bury anything in the path of its lahars do mean tht it has claimed lives during past actvity. This also makes it one of the best monitored volcanoes in South America, the first permanent seismic station dedicated to monitoring a volcano was installed near Cotopaxi in 1976.Colima, or more properly Volcán de Colima, or Volcán de Fuego, is the active vent of a large twin-peaked volcanic complex in western Mexico. Colima has been in an elevated state of activity – with pulses of lava dome growth within the summit crater, occasional lava flows spilling out of the summit crater, and frequent explosions, since the late 1990’s. These eruptions (1997-2011, 2013-17 and 2019 are interspersed with periods of relative calm. Unpredictability: An index created from the range and frequency of different sizes of activity at that volcano (0 to 100) Wow! Moment: appearing on Channel 4’s ‘Escape to the Wild’ with Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs) playing the game in front of Villarica