Which was the largest volcanic eruptionwas largest in history- back up your answer please!?

Senior Moments

According to newmedia.avs.uakron.edu/geology/sial/taupo.html it is at Taupo - Lake Taupo is the result of an immense volcanic eruption. In 186 AD, this eruption reddened sunsets as far away as Rome, and diverted the Waikato River from the east coast to the west. The lake lies in the crater of the huge volcano, and was the scene of the world's biggest volcanic eruption. It was approximately 50 times bigger than Mt. St. Helens. Now pumice stones on the lake's shore are the only visible evidence of this eruption. Jan 14 02, 9:42 PM

Gnomon

I don't think Lake Taupo counts as being in History, because it was not recorded at the time by the local people. History is the past that is written down. If it happened before people started writing things down, it is prehistory. Probably the biggest volcanic eruption in history was that of Krakatoa in Indonesia in the 1880's. I have no source to back this up. There was also a massive but non-explosive eruption in Lakki in Iceland some time in the 1500's. Jan 15 02, 12:55 PM

smartie

the worst volcanic eruption was in 1815 in tambora,indonesia,although it is classed as the worst because most people died-92,000.krakatoa had the biggest ever bang-heard 3,000 miles away.laki in iceland had the largest ever recorded lava flow-50 miles-source-top 10 of everything 2001. according to the guiness book of records krakatoa was the greatest volcanic explosion and tambora was the greatest eruption,so the answer you want is tambora. Jan 15 02, 1:17 PM

palomino

palomino says: The size of a volcanic eruption is measured on the Volcanic Explosivity Index(PEI). Since the dawn of man's civilisation there have been a few that scored 6, such as Krakatoa in 1883, Vesuvius in AD79 and Santorini, Greece around 1650BC. But the only 7 was Tambora, Indonesia in 1815. However, 640,000 years ago the Yellowstone blew up with a violence that would have scored 8. Apparently, it killed animals hundreds of miles away, flattened a mountain range and left a crater the size of the Los Angeles basin. Wed Jan 30 08:58:51 CST 2002 (Moved from #16321 - Duplicate - McG) May 23 03, 9:48 PM