Volcanoes are very dangerous and can cause much more damage than just their lava flows. In addition to lava flows, volcanoes cause ash flows, lahars, mudslides and tsunamis. Lava flows are exactly what they say: hot lava flows. This lava is hot enough, between 500 degrees Celsius and 1,400 degrees Celsius, to burn almost anything. Ash flows, or pyroclastic flows, are like lava flows, but pyroclastic flows are just fast-moving streams of hot gas and rock. This kills more people than lava flows actually do, because pyroclastic flows move quickly while lava flows move more slowly. Lahars are destructive mudflows on the slopes of a volcano. This type of mudflow carries pyroclastic material, rock debris and water. Tsunamis are also caused by volcanic eruptions. This is because if the volcano releases its tension on the side where the body of water is located, the volcano's properties will drain into the water, causing massive waves to flow through it. No matter what type of event a volcano causes, it can be very detrimental to the people it affects. (volcanoes.usgs.gov) There have been many volcanoes throughout world history that have experienced a large eruption and been recorded. For example, Mount Pinatubo erupted in Luzon in the Philippines in 1991. This stratovolcano, or composite volcano, is located along a chain of volcanoes along a subduction zone. Live Science maintains that "a column of ash spewed 21 miles (34 kilometers) into the atmosphere, opening like an umbrella to form a cloud 249 miles (400 km) in diameter." Along with this, the ash from Mount Pinatubo mixed with rain and created a solid mud similar to the toughness of concrete and destroyed the roofs of houses. Another destructive volcano... middle of paper... lay in the streets of Pompeii: some on their knees, others crawling, all yearning for a breath of fresh air but receiving nothing but a cloud of fresh air. ash. This image, a preserved visual reminder of the devastating scale of this eruption, will forever capture the very last, horrific minutes these individuals endured. More than a third of Pompeii still remains buried in ash and debris from the eruptions. Since the eruption of 79 AD, Vesuvius has experienced a twenty-year eruption cycle, but its last serious eruption was in 1944. Today, this region is the most popular tourist spot in 'Italy. People come daily to see what Vesuvius destroyed after twenty-four hours of terror. Scientists continue to monitor it and continue to wonder if an eruption as severe as the one in AD 79 will ever happen again. (Lauren Tarshis)