The last thing you want while snapping Instagram photos at a volcanic crater is to become part of the geological record yourself. Yet every year, tourists treat active volcanoes like particularly spicy theme parks, and the results can be—well, let’s just say they’re not ideal for anyone’s travel blog.
Why Your Hiking Boots Won’t Save You From Superheated Gas Clouds
Pyroclastic flows move at speeds up to 450 miles per hour and reach temperatures of 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s roughly the temperature inside a crematorium, except you don’t get to skip the running-for-your-life part first. In 1991, journalists Harry Glicken and Katia and Maurice Krafft were killed by a pyroclastic flow at Mount Unzen in Japan—all three were experienced volcanologists who knew exactly what they were dealing with. The flow traveled four miles in minutes.
Here’s the thing: you can’t outrun these.
Most people think lava is the main threat, probably because it photographs well and moves with the urgency of cold honey. But volcanic gases—sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide—kill far more efficiently and give you almost no warning. At Lake Nyos in Cameroon in 1986, a massive release of carbon dioxide from the volcanic lake suffocated 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby villages overnight. They literally went to sleep and never woke up.
The Deceptively Chill Volcano That Might Explode Tomorrow Or In Three Centuries
Volcanologists use the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) to measure eruptions on a scale from 0 to 8, but here’s what they don’t advertise on the tourist brochures: predicting eruptions is still embarrassingly difficult. Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines gave about two weeks of warning before its 1991 eruption—a VEI 6 event that ejected 10 cubic kilometers of material. That’s actually considered a *success story* in volcano monitoring. Authorities evacuated 60,000 people, and “only” 847 died, mostly from roof collapses under ash weight.
Turns out most volcanic fatalities don’t happen during the photogenic explosion part.
Before you hike any volcanic terrain, check the alert level through the Global Volcanism Program or local geological surveys. New Zealand uses a scale from 0 to 5; when Whakaari (White Island) erupted in December 2019 at alert level 2, it killed 22 tourists who were walking around the crater at that exact moment. Alert level 2 means “moderate to heightened unrest”—which apparently some tour operators interpreted as “perfectly fine, come on over.”
What To Pack When Mountains Decide They’ve Had Enough Of Your Nonsense
N95 masks aren’t just for pandemics. Volcanic ash consists of tiny glass shards and rock fragments that shred your lungs like microscopic razor blades. During the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland, people within the ashfall zone who went outside without respiratory protection developed chronic respiratory issues. The ash is also conductive when wet, which means it shorts out electronics, engines, and anything else that needs electricity to function. Your phone won’t save you, and neither will your car if ash clogs the air filter.
Pack goggles too—the kind that seal completely around your eyes. Ash causes corneal abrasions and can scratch your eyes permanently if you rub them. Also: bring a actual paper map, because when your GPS dies under a layer of abrasive dust, you’ll wish you weren’t so dependent on technology from this milenia.
Water is non-negotiable, but not for the reason you think. Volcanic terrain often lacks natural water sources, and what water exists might be contaminated with sulfuric acid or heavy metals. At Kawah Ijen in Indonesia, the crater lake has a pH of 0.5—that’s more acidic than battery acid—and miners there suffer horrific chemical burns regularly.
The Invisible Boundaries That Separate Tourists From Darwin Award Nominees
Exclusion zones exist for reasons written in previous visitors’ obituaries.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it killed an estimated 16,000 people in Pompeii and Herculaneum, but that’s ancient history, right? Fast forward to 2023: roughly 600,000 people live in the “red zone” around Vesuvius, which scientists agree will erupt again. The Italian government has an evacuation plan that assumes three weeks of warning—wait, maybe we should mention that the last eruption in 1944 gave about 48 hours of useful warning and still caused significant casualties among Allied troops stationed nearby.
Respect barriers, fences, and signs that say things like “DANGER: TOXIC GAS.” These aren’t suggestions or challenges. In 2017, a man climbed over barriers at the Solfatara crater near Naples to retrieve his brother’s phone and fell into a fumarole—a crack emitting superheated gas. His parents jumped in to save him. All three died within minutes from the toxic fumes. The phone survived.
When The Ground Literally Opens Up And Swallows Your Hiking Trail
Ground deformation happens constantly around active volcanoes, creating cracks, sinkholes, and unstable terrain that looks fine until you step on it. GPS measurements at Kilauea in Hawaii detected the summit subsiding by 1.5 meters during the 2018 eruption, and new fissures opened across residential neighborhoods with almost no warning. One fissure opened directly under a house.
Stay on marked trails, which get surveyed regularly for stability. If you see new cracks in the ground, steam vents that weren’t there yesterday, or the ground feels unusually warm through your boots—leave immediatly. These are signs that magma is moving closer to the surface, and you really don’t want to be around for what comes next. The earth doesn’t send email notifications before it rearranges its crust.
Volcanic tourism offers experiences you literally can’t get anywhere else on Earth, but it requires respecting forces that have been reshaping continents since before humans invented fire. The volcano doesn’t care about your travel schedule, your photo opportunities, or your sense of adventure. It just does what it’s been doing for millions of years, and you’re the one who decided to show up.
