November 2, 1929 Eruption of Santa Maria
Santa Maria in Guatemala erupted on November 2, 1929 with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 3. The eruption killed 200 people.
Where it erupted
Santa Maria, Guatemala, with its other significant eruptions.
The eruption
- Date
- November 2, 1929
- Volcano
- Santa Maria, stratovolcano
- Country
- Guatemala
- Volcanic Explosivity Index
- 3, moderate to large (eruption column 3 to 15 km)
- Killed by
- Pyroclastic flows, surges and direct blasts; Mudflows and lahars
- Location
- 14.757° N, 91.552° W
The toll
- Deaths
- 200
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
CAVW lists 23 fatalities for pyroclastic flow. Volcano Letter (VL) gives 45 deaths, with 21 bodies found at El Palmar, 10 km from the crater but later VL details 26 more killed by hot mud at a plantation on the Rio Tambor. This source also implies that loss of life approached that in the 1902 eruption. Mercado et al. suggest 11/02 dome collapse pyroclastic flow killed from several hundred to as many as 5,000 persons. (reference #9675)
Other significant eruptions of Santa Maria
More
Every eruption in 1929The 1900sSanta MariaEarthquakes near Santa MariaThis day in weather history
Sources
Volcanoes and significant eruptions from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. Volcano numbers are the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program’s. NCEI event 3523.