The Most Powerful Volcanic Eruptions Through History

Taupo erupted with a brilliance so vast it turned sunsets blood-red across the Roman Empire. Ancient Chinese chroniclers wrote of “yellow skies” and “strange mists” that cloaked the world. The explosion carved the immense Lake Taupo and hurled ash thousands of kilometers across the Pacific. Its plume pierced the stratosphere,

reshaping global weather and dimming the sun. Indigenous Māori legends speak of “the fire that ate the sky,” preserving what science later confirmed.