Could a volcano erupt in the Carpathian Basin?

The Csomád volcano embracing St. Anna’s Lake was the last to erupt in the Carpathian Basin 30,000 years ago, but its magma chamber still contains molten lava. At present, there is no indication that it will become active, but there is no guarantee that it will remain dormant either, reports 24.

We Hungarians are horrified to receive news of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes from far away in the world, but with the reassuring feeling that such things can never happen to us. Although Hungary is far from the great fractures of the earth’s crust, that in itself does not mean that these geological hazards cannot reach us.

It is worth noting that earthquakes are not uncommon in Hungary.

Most of them can only be detected by instruments, but every year there are ones that the populace can notice as well, and there have even been earthquakes claiming lives in the past.

The last volcano

Although most of them have been dormant for millions of years, the Transylvanian Csomád volcano erupted 30,000 years ago – which is like yesterday if measured on a geographic scale – and did so with a huge explosion. By the way, this was the last volcanic eruption in the Carpathian Basin. The name may not be familiar to many, but inside the Great Csomád, the only crater lake of the Carpathian Basin, Saint Anna Lake, can be found. The volcano is young in geological terms and is far from being a “permanently extinct” volcano.

At present, there is no indication that it will become active again, but there is no guarantee that it will not erupt either.

Although it may seem inactive, it has been under investigation for over a decade. Getting to know the volcano better is important in many ways. Szabolcs Harangi, a geologist and a volcanologist, the head of the Department of Petrology and Geochemistry at Eötvös Loránd University and the Research Center for Vulcanology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, works on the research with his team.

The Carpathian Basin is a hot-spot for scientists nowadays. Some of them even think that signs of the wildlife’s collapse can be found in the Fogaras Mountains. And if the beautiful landscape got you in the mood for travel, here are some of the most beautiful places you should visit in Hungary.

We experienced the largest volcanic eruptions

As calm as the ground may look now, it had been just as active in the past. In the last 20 million years, volcanoes of the Carpathian Basin have produced the largest eruptions in Europe.

The Mátra, Börzsöny, and Tokaj Mountains, for example, are known to have been created by volcanic activity as a result of a process that began 16 million years ago. These can be considered extinct volcanoes, although it is difficult to find a simple definition. We can say that once the material in the volcanic nucleus has solidified, it is unlikely that it will become active again.

Basalt volcanoes can never be fully predictable

The situation with the so-called basalt volcanoes is slightly different. Often, these are not a high volcano but rather a volcanic field with many small volcanoes. These include the Tihany Peninsula or formations known as the Witness Mountains, from Ság Mountain to Badacsony. Basalt volcanoes are characterised by a rather gentle lava flow, with lava erupting like fireworks and lava fountains.

This kind of activity started around 8 million years ago in our region, but it was extremely unpredictable: between eruptions, there were often periods of 100,000 to even 1 million years of dormancy. The last basalt volcano, Putikov, near Banská Štiavnica, was formed only 100,000 years ago.

Thus, the assumption that if there has been no eruption for many years, there will not be any in the future creates a false sense of security. Basalt magma can – within days or weeks – appear out of the blue and produce eruptions, even in areas that had not been active for millions of years.