Revising the history of big, climate-altering volcanic eruptions

For all their destructive power, most volcanic eruptions are local events. Lava flows tend to reach only a few miles at most, while airborne ash and soot travel a little farther. But occasionally, larger eruptions can launch particles into the stratosphere, more than 6 miles above Earth's surface. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines—the world's largest eruption in the past 100 years—is a prime example of a stratospheric eruption.

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