Are more volcanos erupting than ever before?

Question

It seems that the planet is in great distress and volcanic and seismic activity is increasing.

Answer 1

You think we are seeing lots of volcanic activity NOW?

Rent a copy of Walt Disney's "Fantasia" and watch the part about the early ages of the Earth.

For millions of years, all this planet DID was erupt.

Of course, your question is tied more to relatively recent times. The planet seems to pass through periods of greater and lesser volcanic activity. Much of it is stimulated by movement of the great "tectonic plates" on which our globe is formed. These are huge chunks of the Earth's crust that slide and bump into one another. They "float" on top of the more liquid, or molten, components of the Earth's core.

Vulcanologists, or specialists in volcanoes, can answer your question with greater precision. In general, there has been an apparent increase in volcanic activity over the past 40-50 years. That's how long I've been paying attention, anyhow. But some of this appearance of activity is a product of remembering volcanic events - a few this year, another one or two some years later, and so on. Most what I have noticed is that volcanic activity seems to have moved around the world. Where one volcano goes ka-boom, or squirts out some lava for a time and then goes quiet, later there's a new one doing the same elsewhere. After a time, it seems there are lava flows everywhere, when in fact there are not.

The most persistent volcanic activity I can remember is in Hawaii, where for at least 20 years (or so it seems) the Big Island has slowly been growing as a result of constant lava flow.

The 1800's overall seem to have been far more active in terms of volcanic eruptions and disasters than the past 100 years. Some of the most horrendous volcanic disasters took place in that century.

We should remember that ours is not a "quiet" planet, but an ever-active ball of dirt, water and air. It's an interesting place, eh?

Answer 2

Until recently if a volcano erupted on one side of the Earth, people didn't know about it at all on the other side of the world. In 1815 a gigantic eruption on the Indonesian island of Tambora belched so much dust into the upper atmosphere that 1816 was known as the year without summer or "Eighteen and froze to death" as some people called it. Crops failed, people starved, and no one knew why. Years later geologists put two and two together. Nowadays there is a CNN corespondent in every hamlet and tribal fishing village across the globe, nothing happens anywhere without us hearing about it almost immediately. So it may just seem like activity is increasing because it gets reported more.

Answer 3

No. Rest assured, soon after Earth became 'Earth' - when the process of accretion was pretty much complete - there was much, much more volcanic activity than there is today. The Earth cools, however slowly.

The planet must have gone through tremendous upheaval as Iron and Nickel separated and sank, forming the core.