Lung damage from volcanic ash
Volcanoes can spew ash, a type of particulate matter air pollution, into the air for miles downwind of the eruption. They also produce and release gases mixed with water and tiny particles that form a type of pollution called vog. Volcanic ash can be especially harmful to children, older adults, and people with lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Exposure to volcanic ash can trigger asthma attacks and cause wheezing, coughing, and respiratory irritation in individuals with sensitive airways.
Volcanic Tsunami
The definition of volcanic tsunamis must embrace eruptive, intrusive, and gravitational processes as tsunami sources. Other terms such as ‘‘volcanogenic tsunami’’ or ‘‘volcanism-induced tsunami’’ are also employed. Latter (1981) gives the following definition: ‘‘Tsunami closely associated in time and space with volcanic eruptions’’. Bege´t (2000) proposed a wider definition: ‘‘A high wave or surge of water produced by a variety of eruptive and non-eruptive processes at volcanoes’’. Using this definition, volcanic tsunamis represent around 5 % of all tsunamis listed for the last four centuries (Latter 1981). At least 130 events were observed since 1600 AD, 60 of them during the twentieth century, and 36 during the nineteenth century from the catalog of the National Geophysical Data Center—NGDC.
About 20–25 % of all fatalities directly attributable to volcanoes during the last 250 years have been caused by volcanic tsunamis (Latter 1981; Auker et al.2013). The fatalities were mostly during the 1883 Krakatau eruption in Indonesia (36,500victims, *95 % of them by tsunamis) and the Mayuyama flank collapse in Japan (15,030victims, *75 % of them by the tsunami).
Such events would occur with little warning and can cause devastation at a considerable distance from the volcano. For example, fatalities from the Krakatau tsunami in 1883 occurred as far as185 km (2 people died in Pakisjaya, northern Java: Verbeek 1886) and even 3,000 km from the volcano (one person died at Arugam, Sri Lanka: Wharton 1888).