section_path: Volcanoes and humans/Safety considerations
section_name: Safety considerations
paragraph_text: Safety considerations
  
  Many volcanoes near human settlements are heavily monitored with the aim of providing adequate advance warnings of imminent eruptions to nearby populations. Also, a better modern-day understanding of volcanology has led to some better informed governmental and public responses to unanticipated volcanic activities. While the science of volcanology may not yet be capable of predicting the exact times and dates of eruptions far into the future, on suitably monitored volcanoes the monitoring of ongoing volcanic indicators is often capable of predicting imminent eruptions with advance warnings minimally of hours, and usually of days prior to any eruptions. The diversity of volcanoes and their complexities mean that eruption forecasts for the foreseeable future will be based on probability, and the application of risk management. Even then, some eruptions will have no useful warning. An example of this occurred in March 2017, when a tourist group was witnessing a presumed to be predictable Mount Etna eruption and the flowing lava came in contact with a snow accumulation causing a situational phreatic explosion causing injury to ten persons. Other types of significant eruptions are known to give useful warnings of only hours at the most by seismic monitoring. The recent demonstration of a magma chamber with repose times of tens of thousands of years, with potential for rapid recharge so potentially decreasing warning times, under the youngest volcano in central Europe, does not tell us if more careful monitoring will be useful.
  
  Scientists are known to perceive risk, with its social elements, differently from local populations and those that undertake social risk assessments on their behalf, so that both disruptive false alarms and retrospective blame, when disasters occur, will continue to happen.
  
  Thus in many cases, while volcanic eruptions may still cause major property destruction, the periodic large-scale loss of human life that was once associated with many volcanic eruptions, has recently been significantly reduced in areas where volcanoes are adequately monitored. This life-saving ability is derived via such volcanic-activity monitoring programs, through the greater abilities of local officials to facilitate timely evacuations based upon the greater modern-day knowledge of volcanism that is now available, and upon improved communications technologies such as cell phones. Such operations tend to provide enough time for humans to escape at least with their lives before a pending eruption. One example of such a recent successful volcanic evacuation was the Mount Pinatubo evacuation of 1991. This evacuation is believed to have saved 20,000 lives. In the case of Mount Etna, a 2021 review found 77 deaths due to eruptions since 1536 but none since 1987.
  
  Citizens who may be concerned about their own exposure to risk from nearby volcanic activity should familiarize themselves with the types of, and quality of, volcano monitoring and public notification procedures being employed by governmental authorities in their areas.