How long do volcano eruptions last for?
There are different kinds of eruptions. When Vesuvius or Mount St. Helens erupts, it is so explosive that it is over in a matter of seconds or minutes, and things are destroyed for miles around. There are volcanoes in the Andes that, when they erupt, it lasts a little longer, but the heat releases flash floods of water (melted ice) and mud, devastating downstream villages. Then there is Mauna Loa and Kila’uea. They are just different cones of the same gigantic volcano, and it has been in more or less constant eruption for years or even decades (I have read that when Mauna Loa erupts, the magma level for Kila’uea drops, etc.) This kind of volcano and eruption are the things that have built the Hawai’ian Islands.
