How long was the longest lava flow in the world? what volcano took the most lives?

Daniel Majaess

Hi Daniel,

Certainly one of the longest lava flows is part of the Columbia River Flood Basalt group called the Pomona flow. Its vent area is over in central Idaho and it flowed westward to the Pacific coast near the Oregon/Washington boundary. This makes it about 500 km long. It erupted some 14 million years ago.

In their list of fatalities, Tom Simkin and Lee Seibert ("Volcanoes of the World") list the 1815 eruption of Tambora in Indonesia as the most deadly. They suggest that ~10,000 were killed directly by the eruption (being hit by erupted blocks and bombs, buried by hot ash, drowned by tsunami, etc.). Probably another 82,000 died as a result of widespread starvation and disease in the aftermath. Indonesia was a very poorly-known part of the world to western folks back then and there are not too many contemporary reports to allow for accurate counts.

Sincerely,

Scott Rowland

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