2. History’s Deadliest Volcanic Eruption (Part 1)
In 1783, the Icelandic volcanic fissure of Laki began spewing. The ensuing Laki Eruption was not one of history’s most powerful volcanic events. It was not a massive and violent explosion, like Vesuvius or Krakatoa or Tambora. It happened nothing like what most people imagine when picturing a volcano going off with a bang. Laki did not blow its top and release a massive amount of energy in a dramatic explosion. Indeed, the Laki Eruption did not explode once. Rather, it consisted of eight months of rumblings, with relatively small eruptions from time to time. Lava slowly seeped out of the side every now and then, while the volcano steadily spewed sulfuric dioxide gasses.
Laki was not a vigorous and energetic volcano. A tired and lazy one, the volcano steadily emitted gasses for eight months before it finally subsided and went quiet. Nonetheless, Laki became the deadliest volcanic eruption in human history. Its deadliness is a result of its steady release of gasses. The gasses included flourine and over 120 million tons of sulfuric dioxides, which produced fog and haze as far away as Syria. The flourine settled on Iceland’s grass, which gave grazing animals flouride poisoning and killed most of the island’s livestock. The loss of livestock in turn caused a quarter of Iceland’s human population to starve to death. However, that was not even close to the worst of it.
