Africa The
Waw an Namus volcano is surrounded by an apron of dark tephra, which has a notable color contrast to the surrounding
Sahara Desert. Africa's volcanoes have had an impact on the fossil record. Geographically a part of Africa,
El Hierro is a shield volcano and the youngest and smallest of the
Canary Islands. The most recent
El Hierro eruption occurred underwater, in 2011, and caused earthquakes and landslides throughout the Canary Islands. Instead of ash, floating rocks, 'restingolites' were released after every eruption. After the 2011 eruption, fossils of single-celled marine organisms were found in the restingolites verifying the origin theory that Canary Island growth comes from a single buoyant jet of magma from the Earth's core instead of cracks in the ocean floor. This is reflected in the decreasing age of the islands east to west from
Fuerteventura to El Hierro. There are about 60 volcanoes in Ethiopia, located in east Africa. In Southern Ethiopia, the Omo Kibish Rock Formation is composed of layers of tephra and sediment. Within these layers, several fossils have been discovered. In 1967, 2
Homo sapiens fossils were discovered in the
Omo Kibish Formation by
Richard Leaky, a paleoanthropologist. After radiocarbon dating, they were determined to be 195 thousand years old. Other mammals discovered in the formation include
Hylochoerus meinertzhageni (forest hog) and
Cephalophus (antelope).
Asia , Japan, in 2014, with some of the tephra falling back onto the ground In Asia, several volcanic eruptions are still influencing local cultures today. In North Korea,
Paektu Mountain, a stratovolcano, first erupted in 946 AD and is a religious site for locals. It last erupted in 1903. In 2017, new fossil evidence was discovered that determined the date of Paektu Mountain's first eruption, which had been a mystery. A team of scientists directed by Dr. Clive Oppenheimer, British
volcanologist, discovered a larch trunk embedded within Paektu Mountain. After radiocarbon dating, the larch was determined to be 264 years old which coincides with the 946 AD eruption. Its tree rings are being studied and many new discoveries are being made about
North Korea during that time. In northeastern China, a large volcanic eruption in the early
Cretaceous caused the fossilization of an entire ecosystem known as the
Jehol Biota when powerful
pyroclastic flows inundated the area. The deposits include many perfectly preserved fossils of
dinosaurs,
birds,
mammals,
reptiles,
fish,
frogs,
plants, and
insects.
Europe Europe's volcanoes provide unique information about the history of
Italy. One example is
Mount Vesuvius, a stratovolcano located in southern Italy, which last erupted in March 1944. Earlier, in 79 AD, in an eruption which lasted 12 to 18 hours, Vesuvius had covered the city of
Pompeii in molten lava, ash, pumice, volcanic blocks, and toxic gases. Much of the town was preserved and organic materials fossilized by the volcanic ash, and that has provided valuable information about the
Roman culture. Also, in Italy,
Stromboli volcano, a stratovolcano, last erupted in July 2019.
North America National Volcanic Monument after the 1980 eruption Several volcanic eruptions have been studied in
North America. On 18 May 1980,
Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano in
Washington state, erupted, spreading five hundred million tons of tephra ash across Washington, Oregon,
Montana and
Idaho causing
earthquakes,
rockslides, and
megatsunami which severely altered the topography of nearby areas. In
Yellowstone National Park, eruption-related flooding caused trees to collapse and wash into lake beds where they fossilized. Nearby forests were flooded, removing bark, leaves, and tree limbs. In 2006, the Augustine Volcano in Alaska erupted generating earthquakes,
avalanches, and projected tephra ash approximately two hundred and ninety kilometers away. This dome volcano is over forty thousand years old and has erupted 11 times since 1800.
South America In
South America, there are several historic active volcanoes. In southern
Chile, the
Chaitén volcano erupted in 2011 adding 160 meters to its rim. Prehistoric weapons and tools, formed from
obsidian tephra blocks, were dated at 5,610 years ago and were discovered 400 km away. Due to the location of the
subduction zone of the eastern Pacific's Nazca Plate, there are twenty one active volcanoes in southern
Peru. In 2006, fossils, found under a layer of volcanic ash in Peru, were excavated by a team of paleontologists led by Mark D. Uhen, professor at George Mason University. The fossils were identified as 3 different types of archaeocetes, prehistoric whales, and are older than 36.61 million years which, , makes them South America's oldest whale fossils. ==References==