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LiveScience
LiveScience
Tia Ghose

The 12 biggest volcanic eruptions in recorded history

NASA The Smithsonian Institution Tonga Anak Krakatau El Salvador Guatemala Public Domain USGS
the tonga eruption, with a mushroom formation, seen from space

History has seen some monstrous volcanic eruptions, from Mount Pinatubo's weather-cooling burp to the explosion of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai on the island nation of Tonga.

The power of such eruptions is measured using the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), a classification system developed in the 1980 that's similar to the magnitude scale for earthquakes. The scale goes from 1 to 8, and each succeeding VEI is 10 times greater than the last.

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