For example, about 3000 fatalities occurred in the 1951 eruption of Lamington, Papua New Guinea, when PDCs devastated the volcano's north flank to a distance of up to 13 km (Gorshkov, 1963).
Over 29 million people worldwide live within just 10 km of active volcanoes, and around 800 million people live within 100 km (Brown et al. 2015b), a distance within which there is potential for devastating volcanic hazards at some volcanoes.
However, an eruption could be devastating for all areas surrounding the volcano.
Volcanoes can also produce devastating tsunamis, with the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa (Indonesia) churning up the sea sufficiently to produce lethal waves that killed 36,000 people.
Ancient Greece had not known a natural disaster as devastating in more than 1,000 years, when an exploding volcano destroyed much of the island of Thera, modern Santorini.
Additionally, individuals did indicate that the volcano, if it erupted, would be devastating to their communities.
Extremely steep, cone-shaped volcanoes can partially collapse and create devastating debris avalanches.
The area affected by the volcano was devastated; a thick layer of volcanic ash (up to 30 cm) was deposited in areas 50 km east of the volcano towards Argentina.
The worst was the 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano, which spewed a toxic cloud over Europe with devastating consequences.
This was when a volcano called Laki erupted (and, note, took eight months to stop erupting), devastating not just Iceland's agriculture, but much of Europe's too.
