Santa Maria Volcano, 1902 (VEI 6)

The explosion in Guatemala was one of the largest eruptions of the 20th century and left a crater of about a mile (1.5 km) across. It came after the volcano had remained silent for about 500 years.

The tree-covered volcano is one of a chain of stratovolcanoes along Guatemala's Pacific coastal plain. Since the last blast in 1922 (VEI 3), it experienced continuous activity, and in 1929, it spewed out a pyroclastic flow that may have killed about 5,000 people.