Has there been an increase in volcanic activity in the past few decades?

Photograph of Fogo eruption, looking east towards Mt. Pico by Frank Trusdell, U.S. Geological Survey, April 25, 1995.

There are many factors at work here. One of the biggest ones is that as populations increase, people end up living in many regions that were once considered remote, and if these happen to be volcanic regions then once unseen eruptions will now be reported. Additionally the ability of communication around the world to rapidly transmit information from even really remote places has increased so that the world now knows of an eruption shortly after it has happened.

Finally there is the natural randomness of natural events. It is unreasonable to expect that natural processes won't have some sorts of variations to them. Remember, we have only been paying attention to most volcanic regions for a few hundred years. Thus if there presently happens to be a cluster of eruptions by mere random variation we will think it is an increase in activity. If we had been around 1000 years ago, or if we last another 1000 years we'll probably see it drop back off. Of course there is always the possibility that there is an increase in activity. I think, though, that the information is still too speculative to say for sure that this may be happening. I would place most of any perceived increase on the human factors such as better reporting and more people around to see eruptions.

Scott Rowland