What kills more, and causes more damage, earthquakes or volcanoes?

Question

What kills more earthquakes or volcanoes?, what causes more damage? and if u had to pick were would your rather live? I’ve been debating this for a long time... what’s your stance?

Answer 1

The answer depends on the kind of volcano, the amount of ash that is released into the atmosphere, if you count the buildings that collapse because of the earthquake, the fires that start from a gas leak after an earthquake, and the after effects that happen from an earthquake and a volcano.

See there are basically two kinds of volcanoes, quiet and explosive. Hawaii is a quiet volcano. Mt Saint hellen is an explosive, as well as pompa.

Depending on the amount of ash that comes into the air... see if the explosion of a violent volcano spus out enough ash it can drasticly alter the temperture of the earth and darken the sun. Also, if there is a lot of ash in the air it will take a lot longer to clean the air to have it return to normal. So therefore there could be a drought that could kill millions (now hundreds of millions) from a volcano if this were to occur.

I don't count building collapes, because that is really a human effect of death from an earthquake. See the earthquake struck pakistan last year it killed around 30,000 people However, if the building codes were addicute for were these people lived (convergent continent vs. continent bandery), were better perpared for their kinds of earthquakes, and had more compantent aid, then that number would have been reduced vastly. Example, in northridge, California only for people were killed because we have much better building codes. Also, the reason they were killed was because of this little thing called the double freeway. This is were there are two freeways with one on top of the other; so, when the earthquake hit this man made thing fell and made human sandwiches. So, it is human things that cause the most damage not earthquakes.

Most deaths have been from fires that occur after an earthquake hit. This is because a gas main brakes and is not turned off, and with one spark... BOOM. An example of this is of San Fransico's earthquake of 1910. Almost all of the deaths came from the devistating fire that came after. More human caused deaths that just had the addition of a little catalis called earthquake.

Someone gave an example of an earthquake causeing a tsunami. Well, sorry to tell you, but volcanos can cause Tsunamis as well. In 1883, there was a volcano island called Krakatoa. It erupted and though it did not spread as far as the earthquake Tsunami of 2005, it is still considered to be much more powerful. The Tsunami caused by Krakatoa actually made the ocean calm, with out ANY waves what so ever, for about five minutes. this did not happen with the earthquake caused Tsunami. And the volcanic eruption destroyed the island or Krakatoa leaving almost nothing.


Oh, Just a nice little ending point, but there is a devistating volcano in yellowstone, or should i say the volcano that covers ALL of yellowston national park, that is expected to erupt very, very, very violently (so violently that it is best not to think about) very very very soon. In a nut shell, yellowstone is expanding (mangma is accumulating under the ground) at roughly a cm a year (74 cm over 84 years). And we are over do for an eruption there.


So, even if you live in California with its earthquakes, Utah will still kill you with its mega-volcano.
But if you had to chose a place to live, I'd go with earthquakes and improve the the foundations and make sure that the ground is capable and about 30-60 miles from a fault.

Answer 2

Earthquakes kill and have killed more. I once read an article about historical earthquakes killing tens and hundreds of thousands of people. Earthquakes have further reaching effects than volcanoes. Not only does the ground shake in a large radius, but the quake can produce a tsunami as well. Volcanoes are alot more infrequent than quakes, and usually alot more localized.

Answer 3

A volcano can damage places in many different ways. One way is lava. Another way is if the volcano is a composite volcano, it can produce ash. Another way a volcano can cause great amounts of damage is not only to the city itself, but to the people, if a pyroclastic flow comes from the volcano because pyroclastic flows can get anywhere from a thousand to five-thousand degrees fahrenheit.This hurts buildings beyond belief and can kill people instantly.There is also no way to outrun a pyroclastic flow. They average 250 miles per hour.

Answer 4

To actually answer your question, lava kills just about everything it touches, but has limited range. Ash kills even more things with a bigger range.

An Earthquake has more range, but less of a concentration of energy in one spot. Sure the ground might open up under you RARELY...but the main killing power of an Earthquake lies in building colapses.

Therefore, earthquakes kill more...and if you live near a known fault line, you are dumb.

I live in Florida. Hurricanes and a few tornadoes kill less people.

My final thought is the single factor that causes the most death is birth. So, please wear a condom? LOL

Answer 5

volcanoes do thee most damage in fact the ash from a volcano can travel around the world in a matter of days and it also has to be a rather large eruption. case in study in the 15th century a supper-mega volcano erupted and caused the winter to last anywhere from ten to fifteen years and people starved to death. So I would not live near a volcano.

Answer 6

Earthquakes wins hands down. Volcanoes give some warning and you can choose to live far away. Plus, they rarely erupt but earthquakes happen all the time.

Answer 7

I think earthquakes have killed more & have caused more damage. Might be that is prone to many places. Volcanoes have more destructive power. Yet that haven't killed many people.

Answer 8

lately Earth quakes ,in the past Volcanoes,now Hurricanes

Answer 9

I'm shocked, nobody blamed George W. for causing the earthquakes, volcano's, tornado's, and any other natural hazards.

Answer 10

Hurricanes & Tornadoes