It is day three of the Round of 32. Check out the full bracket here.

You can still vote for Day 1 and Day 2 as well!

Match 9: Scotland v. Netherlands

Scotland: 0% live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

What am I supposed to do with two countries that have either no volcanoes (Scotland) at all or the nearest volcano to “mainland” is ~7,000 kilometers away (Netherlands). I mentioned Arthur’s Seat in the group round for Scotland so what have I got? The Isle of Skye has basalt, likely formed from an ancient mantle plume. Similar composition lava in the Hebrides could be related to early Icelandic plume magmatism? There is a book about the volcanic history of Scotland by Brian Upton if you really want to do the deep dive.

Netherlands: If only considering Netherlands territory in the Lesser Antilles, 25.3% (4,000) live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

I have already mentioned my fondness for The Quill but really the more active volcano in the Netherlands’ Lesser Antilles territories is Saba. It is the northernmost of the Lesser Antilles. It behaves much like other volcanoes of the region, producing lava domes and pyroclastic flows from the summit area (also called Mount Scenery). There is even a sulfur mine on the island. The most recent activity was around 1640, but much of the rest of Saba’s volcanic activity has not been studied.

Match 10: France v. Germany

France: 0.67% (647,000) live within 30 kilometers of a Holocene volcano; 3% (1.86 million) live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

Match 10 has two European football powerhouses that most people don’t even know also have recent volcanism in their territory. I didn’t mention the most famous French volcano during the group phase: Piton de la Fournaise. It is located way off in the Indian Ocean on Reunion Island and much like its Hawaiian counterpart, it is almost constantly erupting. The lava flows and scoria cones from its eruptions pockmark the slopes of the giant shield volcano. France also has one of the newest volcanoes on Earth, the recently christened Fani Maoré that formed near Mayotte Island in 2019.

Germany: 0.23% (187,000) live within 30 kilometers of a Holocene volcano; 5.8% (4.72 million) live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

Germany doesn’t have the remote volcanic outposts of France but it does still have the West Eifel Volcanic Field. The famed Laacher See eruption came from the East Eifel Volcanic Field, but it is the western field that has produced the most recent eruptions. There are over 240 small volcanic cones that litter the countryside of Germany as part of the West Eifel area. You can even check them out at the Vulkaneiful UNESCO Global Geopark!

Match 11: México v. Switzerland

México: 13.6% (15.4 million) live within 30 kilometers of a Holocene volcano; ~48% (61.3 million) live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of Reading Rainbows with LeVar Burton. One of the stories that really stuck with me was about the start of the eruption of Parícutin in 1943. Farmer plowing a field seemingly stumbles into a newly emerging volcano that grew in his field for the better part of the next decade. It blows my mind every time I think about it to this day. What is my point? That was one of nine volcanoes in México to have erupted at least once since 1800. Now that’s some volcanic prowess.

Switzerland: 0% live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

You can almost feel bad for the Swiss. Over six times as many people live within 100 kilometers of a volcano in México than all of Switzerland. Switzerland does have lovely lakes and mountains that capture the glacial and tectonic history of Europe, but volcanoes are really, truly lacking.

Match 12: Panamá v. Saudi Arabia

Panamá: 7.7% (266,000) live within 30 kilometers of a Holocene volcano; 92.6% (3.2 million) live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

Of all the countries in the Round of 32, it is Panamá that has the biggest percentage jump when it comes to population living near volcanoes. While only ~7.7% live within 30 kilometers of a volcano, almost the entire country lives within 100 kilometers. Now, it helps that Panamá isn’t a huge country and that much of its population is centered in one region. Yet, for a country known more for its treacherous swamps, volcanoes could pose quite a threat if they became restless again.

Saudi Arabia: 2.7% (637,000 million) live within 30 kilometers of a Holocene volcano. 17.7% (4.62 million) live within 100 kilometers of a Holocene volcano.

The lava fields in southern Saudi Arabia are impressive. They can really stand out against the desert backdrop. Back in 650 CE, Harrat Khaybar erupted — and that was just after the death of Mohammed in 632 CE. I remember back in 2009 and 20011 there were intense seismic swarm at Harrat Lunayyir that have been interpreted as basaltic dikes intruding into the crust of the Arabian peninsula. That volcanic field hasn’t erupted since 1000 CE, but Harrat Rahat erupted in 1256 CE with over half a cubic kilometer of basalt lava erupting in that event. Saudi Arabia is noisier than a lot of people think.