Weaver/Science

Also if you think about it are you more afraid of yellow stone erupting or the earth shaking for a few seconds?

Most people won't even be injured from the actual earthquake they get injured/die from the falling debris, exploding gas lines, and falling water towers. People may be recorded from being killed from the earthquakes its really just the "domino" affect the quake causes.

Earthquakes and volcanoes both do an enormous amount of damage while in my personal opinion I believe that volcanoes are a little more dangerous than earthquakes because volcanoes have a few long term low key impacts, for example when the volcano erupts and the ash cloud may spur across the sky it will impact the crops and water sources for many years it may also cause a series of problems that has a domino effect on each other. But when comparing death counts both have done some major damage here are some real examples comparing volcanoes and earthquakes.

Volcanoes

Deaths Volcano When Major Cause of Death

92,000 Tambora, Indonesia 1815 Starvation

36,417 Krakatau, Indonesia 1883 Tsunami

29,025 Mt. Pelee, Martinique 1902 Ash flows

25,000 Ruiz, Colombia 1985 Mudflows

14,300 Unzen, Japan 1792 Volcano collapse, tsunami

9,350 Laki, Iceland 1783 Starvation

5,110 Kelut, Indonesia 1919 Mudflows

4,011 Galunggung, Indonesia 1882 Mudflows

3,500 Vesuvius, Italy 1631 Mudflows, lava flows

3,360 Vesuvius, Italy 79 Ash flows and falls

2,957 Papandayan, Indonesia 1772 Ash flows

2,942 Lamington, Papua N.G. 1951 Ash flows

2,000 El Chichon, Mexico 1982 Ash flows

1,680 Soufriere, St Vincent 1902 Ash flows

1,475 Oshima, Japan 1741 Tsunami

1,377 Asama, Japan 1783 Ash flows, mudflows

1,335 Taal, Philippines 1911 Ash flows

1,200 Mayon, Philippines 1814 Mudflows

1,184 Agung, Indonesia 1963 Ash flows

1,000 Cotopaxi, Ecuador 1877 Mudflows

800 Pinatubo, Philippines 1991 Roof collapses and disease

700 Komagatake, Japan 1640 Tsunami

700 Ruiz, Colombia 1845 Mudflows

500 Hibok-Hibok, Philippines 1951

Ash flows

Earthquakes

Haiti region 316000 Deaths, 2010

Tangshan, China 242769 Deaths, 1976

Sumatra 227898 Deaths, 2004

Haiyuan, Ningxia (Ning-hsia), China 200000 Deaths, 1920

Kanto (Kwanto), Japan 142800 Deaths, 1923

Ashgabat (Ashkhabad), Turkmenistan (Turkmeniya, USSR) 110000 Deaths, 1948

Eastern Sichuan, China 87587 Deaths, 2008

Pakistan 86000 Deaths, 2005

Messina, Italy 72000 Deaths 1908.

This list does continue at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/world deaths.php

When you compare the two disasters by death count both have an enormous amount of deaths and both are very hazardous and neither should be taken as nondestructive. Although volcanoes are limited to only a certain amount of area they can completely destroy a large amount of area for 100’s of years and it can insanely hard to rebuild a society after an eruption. Earthquakes can happen almost anywhere although most people don't actually die from the quake they die from the falling debris and erupting gas lines.

The volcanoe list was stolen from Jarrett Dale Lynch (aka ghost 2) but other information was gathered at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listofvolcaniceruptionsbydeathtoll