ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATEDeath could have been prevented if early warning has been given. A volcanic eruption on New Zealand's White Island is the cause of the death of at least five people with more than 30 people wounded.
Japan's Raikoke volcano in the Kuril Islands last erupted in 1924 and has been silent since then, until a few days ago when nearly a century's silence was broken by a massive eruption with such high velocity.
The scientists believe that the biggest mass extinction that ever happened on earth was caused by a huge volcanic eruption triggered by climate change.
Scientists found that meteorite that hit the earth more than a billion years ago had triggered a long-lived volcanic eruption on Earth, changing the surface and climate.
Several villages were placed in silence after Mount Sinabung erupted in 2012. There were dusty kitchens from crumbling houses, vehicles overgrown by vegetation and volcanic ash covered almost everything.
One volcano expert is warning that Japan's massive 2011 earthquake--which damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant and caused a nuclear crisis--could cause large volcanic eruptions in the coming years, yet he could not say when people could expect the eruptions to happen.