Volcano World Cup – Group I

Remember to cast your vote for Group I at the bottom of this post!

France – 33/20/11/8

Chaîne des Puys region of France. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Colonies mean that some countries end up with volcanoes are far flung areas. France might have only one volcano in its continental borders but it also claims domain over a volcano ~16,000 kilometers away. Almost smack in the middle of France is the Chaîne des Puys, a cluster of volcanoes that last erupted in ~4040 BCE. Meanwhile, way off in the South Pacific, (no, not that one) is a seamount (also called Tamarii) that is claimed by France. It may have erupted as recently as 1989, but our only evidence are long range hydroacoustic measurements that capture explosions or earthquakes. All those distant islands really add up for France.

Senegal – 1/0/0/0

Satellite image of Cap-Vert in Senegal. Credit: Society of Peninsula Assessment

Senegal has one entry in the Global Volcanism Program’s database. One! It is for a volcanic field near Dakar on the Cap-Vert Peninsula. These eruptions likely ended 600,000 years ago, so not exactly something that most people would consider. This activity is potentially linked to a hotspot that Africa has moved over since the Miocene about 35 million years ago so there is always a chance that volcanism could start up again in Senegal in the future.

Iraq – 0/0/0/0

Ancient art carved into the rocks of Iraq. Credit: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg) / Wikimedia Commons.

Finding information of any kind about present or past volcanism in Iraq is hard. There clearly aren’t any modern volcanoes in the country that we know of, but in the past there appears to have been a few. There appears to be basalt in northern Iraq that dates from the Eocene (36-55 million years ago) but it is even called an “abnormally odd and rare occurrence” by the authors of the study. I tried!

Norway – 5/2/1/1

Jan Mayen in the North Atlantic. Credit: Dreizung / Wikimedia Commons.

Fun fact: No country has volcanoes in the same ocean as far apart as Norway! Bouvet in the South Atlantic and Jan Mayen in the North Atlantic are almost 14,000 kilometers apart as the (very tired) crow flies. Yes, I did just mention that France has volcanoes that are further apart, but you can connect a line down the Atlantic between these volcanoes. Jan Mayen is the most recently active, erupting in 1985 but Bouvet has erupted in the past 2,000 years as well. That being said, I don’t think Oslo has to be concerned.

ERUPTIONS