An underwater volcano exploded near Tonga in the South Pacific to stunning effect this week. The pictures of gas and steam erupting out of the surface of the water captivated the world.

Here at Wired Science, we love volcanoes — so we decided to use the Tongan eruption to round up some of our favorite volcano eruption pics and present them as big. Above, you can see Mt. Cleveland in Alaska erupting on May 23, 2006 as photographed by NASA's Earth Observatory .

Next up is the glorious explosion, below, of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines back in 1991. Credit: USGS

Mt. St. Helens, located about 50 miles north of Portland, Oregon in southern Washington state, experienced the most catastrophic eruption of recent memory. In 1980, the mountain literally blew its top. In one day, Mt. St. Helens lost more than 1,000 feet of elevation. Photo: USGS.

Here we see an aerial photograph of the August 3, 2008 eruption plume from Okmok Volcano.

Credit: Alaska Volcano Observatory/UAF-GI.

This underwater volcano, Brimstone Pit, was caught erupting by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Submarine Ring of Fire program. You can see the same volcano erupting in the video below. "If we were observing this type of eruptive activity on land we would have to run for our lives!" the researchers note. "At Brimstone Pit the pressure of [1837 feet] of water over the site reduces the power of the explosive bursts."

The Tavurvur volcano in Papua New Guinea experienced a major eruption in 1994. Though it forced the evacuation of most of the area, it wasn't nearly as bad as a 1937 eruption, which killed over 500 people. Credit: USGS

The Kamchatka province is a highly geologically active area in far Eastern Russia, near Sarah Palin's house. On March 29, 2007, the peninsula's Shiveluch Volcano erupted, sending an ash cloud more than 30,000 feet into the air. NASA's Earth Observatory caught the action.

Mt. Stromboli, located on an Italian island, is famous for its fountain-like eruptions, as captured by Wolfgang Beyer. It's one of the few volcanoes that exists in a state of permanent (and thankfully) moderate eruption. It's been bubbling for more than 2,000 years.

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