Ranking the 10 Most Dangerous Volcanoes, From Vesuvius to Santa Maria

The Santiaguito volcano erupting.Martin Rietze/Getty Images Time to count down some dangerous volcanoes. I've gone through what might make a volcano dangerous and how I tried to rank dangerous volcanoes, developing a points system based on population, magma type, volcano type, and past large explosive eruptions. Looking at some recent articles about "dangerous volcanoes," my ranking comes to some pretty different conclusions. What my ranking boils down to is what volcano has the highest potential for mass casualties based population, style of eruption and potential for large explosive events. I'll start with some honorable mentions that fell outside the top 10 (in order of increasing danger): Pululagua (Ecuador), Guntur, Gede-Pangrango and Semeru (Indonesia), Popocatépetl (Mexico), Colli Alban (Italy), Dieng Volcanic Complex and Tengger Caldera (Indonesia), Nyiragongo (DR Congo), and Merapi (Indonesia). Here are the top 10 (with people living within 30 kilometers and 100 kilometers listed.) 10. Santa Maria, Guatemala ...