Cultures around the world have grown accustomed to living close to volcanoes which, with the passing of decades and even centuries, have become part of their culture and folklore. But the danger volcanoes can pose to local communities, as well as larger areas of the world, should not be downplayed.

While massive eruptions are fortunately rare, just in recent decades nature has shown the powerful impact eruptions can have – including in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo ejected so much lava and ash it created a volcanic winter and temporarily decreased average temperatures around the world of about 0.4C.

Christopher Kilburn, Professor of Volcanology at UCL, acknowledged massive volcanic eruptions can have devastating consequences on the world, although it is not possible to forecast if it could represent an “existential threat” to human beings.

Mentioning as an example Yellowstone, the caldera in the Western US that last erupted some 640,000 years ago, he told Express.co.uk: “The problem with these [eruptions] is that they can throw so much gas and ash high up into the atmosphere above the stratosphere that can do two things: the ash reduces the amount of sunlight, while the longer-lived threat is posed by the sulfur dioxide.

“This gas common in magma gets mixed up with the water high up in the atmosphere and causes these droplets of basically sulfuric acid, which also stop sunlight from coming through and they stay in the atmosphere for much longer than the ash.

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“And so the problem we would suffer from this on a global level is crop failure and starvation.” Meanwhile, a large area in the proximity of such a massive eruption would suffer “total destruction”, the volcanologist added.

While a similar threat exists, Professor Kilburn believes it is “quite dangerous” to assume volcanoes that previously had a super-eruption – which means they expelled dozens of cubic kilometres of material – are doomed to only create similarly devastating eruptions in the future.

The last activity of Mount Vesuvius, which ended in 1944, was much different and less impactful than the eruption that in 79 AD destroyed Pompeii, he noted.

He said: “You mustn’t ignore the possibility [of a super-eruption]. But it’s also dangerous to assume that it will happen. Because if these things are so big, and they do happen, then you don’t prepare because you think there’s nothing you can do. 

“But if the eruptions are small, just a conventional size, then there is something you can do and you can prepare, so psychologically it’s quite important to appreciate the fact that it isn’t something so big we may just throw up our hands in the air and ignore it.”

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Indeed, there are signs, including tremors, experts look out for which signal an eruption may take place in the future – although they don’t necessarily mean the event will take place.

These signs of restlessness are typically picked up “about a year ahead” of the eruption, but they need to be consistent over several months before they are “appreciated”, he explained.

He added: “So in the end, it might only be only a few weeks ahead of the eruption when you can do something practical, because you just got to recognise that they may lead to something threatening, that takes quite a long time.”

The danger a volcano can pose depends on several factors, including the nearby population density, its explosivity and eruption history. Here are some worth keeping an eye on.

Yellowstone (United States)

The Yellowstone Caldera located in Wyoming is one of the most feared volcanoes in the world. The large caldera formed as a result of the three massive eruptions that happened over the past 2.1 million years – the Huckleberry Ridge eruption, the Mesa Falls eruption and the Lava Creek eruption.

Should a new super-eruption of similar intensity to these past three take place, large parts of North America may become uninhabitable and the whole world may plunge into a volcanic winter.

The concern caused by Yellowstone prompted NASA to conduct a study in 2017 to determine whether it could be possible to prevent the volcano from erupting.  

Katla (Iceland)

Iceland is one of Earth’s most volcanically active areas and often sees eruptions taking place. Earlier this month, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake was followed by the eruption of Litla-Hrút on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

While this eruption has created very few issues, an eruption of Katla, which hasn’t happened since 2018, could potentially spark long-term issues.

Assistant professors Andy Hooper and Joris Melkert, from the University of Delft in the Netherlands, said in 2010: “If Katla were to erupt, the potential for travel chaos and economic damage would be much greater than has occurred in the last few days.”

Cumbre Vieja (La Palma, Canary Islands)

Cumbre Vieja became particularly feared after a team of US and UK experts argued in a paper in 2001 a massive eruption of this volcano could have the potential of dislodging a huge sector of the island of La Palma and trigger a vast tsunami able to hit the American continent. 

However, in recent years Luis González de Vallejo, director of the Geological Risks Area of Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias, argued it would require a series of unlikely combinations of eruption and earthquake for the collapse to happen. 

Mount Vesuvius (Italy)

The danger Vesuvius could pose with a massive eruption would be first and foremost to the more than 700,000 people living in the so-called Vesuvian area, or red zone. 

Recent studies shared by the Italian civil protection show the volcanic event most likely to happen next in the area is a violent Strombolian eruption featuring the fall of pyroclastic materials and the formation of lahars.

Local authorities monitor the volcano 24/7 and currently consider the alert level for Vesuvius green, which means they aren’t recording anomalies in its activity.

Mount Tambora (Sumbawa, Indonesia)

The largest eruption observed in human history over the past 10,000 years happened at Mount Tambora, which started its violent activity in April 1815.

The eruption, which released tonnes of sulphur into the stratosphere causing a global climate anomaly, was heard 2,600km away and created devastations in several regions.

This event brought death through its pyroclastic flow, a tsunami, a post-eruption famine and epidemics, and is believed to have killed at least 71,000 people.

This eruption wasn’t Tambora’s latest, which instead happened in 1967 and on a much smaller scale. But given its deadly history, Indonesian authorities closely monitor the volcano.

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