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Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius
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Number of Eruptions Total Eruptions with this VEI

Volcanologists have rated over 6,000 eruptions that occurred within the last 10,000 years. Most eruptions have a VEI of 3 or less. Luckily, really big eruptions don't happen very often.

There are many volcanoes with a VEI of 2 because scientists assign a 2 to any volcano that they know was explosive but about which they have no other information.

back to VEI chart | Examples



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