I guess the most serious nearby environmental effect is the burial
by either ash, mud, or lava. In many cases these materials bury the area
under 10's of meters. Certainly anyone caught by them will be killed,
but they are also difficult to farm on.
At Pinatubo it has been recently realized that the huge amount of ash
deposited high on the slopes (where very few people live) has since the
main eruption caused way more damage to the lower areas (where people DO
live) than the original eruption did.
Yes, the brilliant sunsets are caused by sulfuric acid aerosols
that get into the stratosphere. Only the largest eruptions get anything
that high (ash, gas, and aerosols in the troposphere get rained out
within a few weeks).
Steve Mattox, University of North Dakota
Sam
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