Scientists analyze volcanoes’ killing ways

An analysis of people’s deaths from more than 400 volcanic eruptions may help reduce fatalities from future eruptions.

Pyroclastic flows spill down the slopes of Mayon volcano in the Philippines in this Sept. 23, 1984, image. Because more than 73,000 people evacuated danger zones, this eruption claimed no casualties. C.G. Newhall/U.S. Geol. Survey

In recorded history, volcanic activity has killed about 275,000 people, estimates Tom Simkin, a geologist with the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He and his colleagues report their findings in the Jan. 12 Science.