This timeline of volcanism on Earth is a list of major volcanic eruptions of approximately at least magnitude 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index or equivalent sulfur dioxide emission around the Quaternary period. Some eruptions cooled the global climate—inducing a volcanic winter—depending on the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted and the magnitude of the eruption. Before the Holocene epoch, the criteria are less strict because of scarce data availability, partly since later eruptions have destroyed the evidence. So, the known large eruptions after the Paleogene period are listed, and especially those relating to the Yellowstone hotspot, the Santorini caldera, and the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Only some eruptions before the Neogene period are listed. Active volcanoes such as Stromboli, Mount Etna and Kilauea do not appear on this list, but some back-arc basin volcanoes that generated calderas do appear. Some dangerous volcanoes in populated areas appear many times: so Santorini, six times and Yellowstone hotspot, twenty-one times. The Bismarck volcanic arc, New Britain, and the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, appear often too. In addition to the events listed below, are many examples of eruptions in the Holocene on the Kamchatka Peninsula, which are described in a supplemental table by Peter Ward.
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