The eruption of Santorini in Greece in 1,650 B.C. was one of the largest (VEI=6) in the last 10,000 years. About 7 cubic miles (30 cubic km) of rhyodacite magma was erupted. The plinian column during the initial phase of the eruption was about 23 miles (36 km) high. The removal of such a large volume of magma caused the volcano to collapse, producing the caldera.

VEI	Description	Plume Height	Volume	Classification	How often	Example
0	non-explosive	<100 m	1000s m3	Hawaiian	daily	Kilauea
1	gentle	100-1000 m	10,000s m3	Haw/Strombolian	daily	Stromboli
2	explosive	1-5 km	1,000,000s m3	Strom/Vulcanian	weekly	Galeras, 1992
3	severe	3-15 km	10,000,000s m3	Vulcanian	yearly	Ruiz, 1985
4	cataclysmic	10-25 km	100,000,000s m3	Vulc/Plinian	10's of years	Galunggung, 1982
5	paroxysmal	>25 km	1 km3	Plinian	100's of years	St. Helens, 1981
6	colossal	>25 km	10s km3	Plin/Ultra-Plinian	100's of years	Santorini, 1650 BC
7	super-colossal	>25 km	100s km3	Ultra-Plinian	1000's of years	Tambora, 1815
8	mega-colossal	>25 km	1,000s km3	Ultra-Plinian	10,000's of years	Yellowstone, 2 Ma