Mauna Loa has been erupting regularly for at least the past 700,000 years, with its most recent eruption occurring in 1984. The most significant hazard Mauna Loa poses to surrounding communities are its lava flows. Although most of the flows from Mauna Loa advance at a slow pace, major eruptions can cause fast moving flows

Another rarer, but potentially more devastating hazard posed by Mauna Loa is the potential for massive landslides triggered by a collapse of the volcano’s flanks.

The Taal Volcano has had 33 recorded eruptions since 1572.

In fact, from 1894 to 1977, Nyiragongo’s summit crater was filled with a large, active lava lake. When the walls of the crater fractured on Jan 10, 1977, the lava lake drained within an hour, causing massive lava flows of over 60 miles per hour.

Mt. Merapi’s infamous lava flows usually travel around 3-4 miles from the peak, though some eruptions cause lava to flow as far as 8 miles. These lava flows can travel as fast as 70 miles per hour.

Mt. Vesuvius is the only volcano to have erupted on the European mainland within the last hundred years.

Unlike traditional volcanoes, super volcanoes don’t have a cone shaped mountain, instead they form what are known as calderas – the sunken areas that are left over from previous super volcano eruptions.

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These begin when large reservoirs of magma collect deep in the Earth's crust. Magma continues to collect as the reservoir grows to an enormous size under extreme pressure. A super eruption occurs when the pressurized magma raises overlying crust enough to create vertical fractures that extend to the planet's surface. One by one, magma begins to surge vertically along these new cracks, which forms a ring of erupting vents. Eventually, as the vents merge with each other, the large cylinder of land within the ring has nothing to support it.

The remaining earth above the chamber crashes down into the magma below. This collapsing crust forces additional lava and gasses out around the edges of the ring further increasing the violence of the eruption that is now hundreds of times larger than a regular eruption. When the eruption ends it will leave behind a caldera, or large crater