Volcanic eruption (Civ6)

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Volcanic eruption icon

A volcanic eruption is a natural disaster in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm that can occur from a Volcano tile and affect surrounding tiles.

Mechanics

An active Volcano may cause a devastating eruption, which is one of the types of natural disasters. Compared to other disasters, this is maybe the most devastating. It will affect all tiles surrounding the Volcano (or, on Disaster Intensity settings 3 and 4, those up to 2 hexes away from it), and besides the usual disaster damage, the eruption may remove features and even bonus resources. Affected tiles will then acquire the Volcanic Soil feature, which receives more potent yields from future eruptions and also yields which aren't available from other disaster types, like Science and Culture.

Volcanic eruptions are the only type of disaster unaffected by climate change.

Since both Volcanic Soil and Floodplains are terrain features, eruptions will not remove Floodplains as this would "break" Rivers. These tiles will not gain Volcanic Soil, but may still be fertilized and pillaged.

Note that you cannot prevent Population loss by not working the tiles near a Volcano because eruption events do not check whether the affected tiles are worked or not. While Liang's Reinforced Materials title will protect a city's districts and improvements, it will not prevent Population loss or removal of features and resources.

Volcanic eruptions can be summoned by a Soothsayer standing next to an active Volcano in the Apocalypse game mode. Summoned volcanic eruptions do not provide extra yields.

Eruption effects

Below is a table of the different damage types that each level of eruption causes. The numbers are the percentage chances each damage may occur. While eruptions may damage or destroy improvements, districts, buildings, Citizens, units, and Walls, they do not affect wonders.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Vesuvius, and Eyjafjallajökull are all natural wonders that count as Volcanoes which are always active. Mount Kilimanjaro erupts on two different severity levels (Gentle and Catastrophic), while Mount Vesuvius always erupts on Megacolossal level.

In general, Kilimanjaro gives low and less valued yields (most likely Food, or Food and Production only) while causing less damage, Vesuvius causes devastating damage but gives a lot of high-valued yields (high chance for Culture, medium chance for Science, Production and Food), and Eyjafjallajökull does a moderate amount of both. Eyjafjallajökull and Vesuvius are the only Volcanoes which can confer a Science or Culture bonus to the nearby tiles, either passively or through eruptions.

Eyjafjallajökull is both the only multiple-tile Volcano (with two tiles) and the Volcano that can affect the most nearby tiles (it has 8 tiles adjacent to it, and 14 in the ring two hexes away). It is usually surrounded only or mostly by Tundra or Snow, and as such provides useful Food to nearby tiles.

Severity	Range	Damages
		Improvement	District	Building	Population	Civilians killed	Units	Garrison	City Walls
Gentle	1	Pillaged: 100	0	100	0	0	0	0	0
Catastrophic	1	Pillaged: 100 Destroyed: 75	75	100	20	20	100% chance; 40-60 HP	100% chance; 40-60 HP	100% chance; 40-60 HP
Megacolossal	1	Pillaged: 100 Destroyed: 80	80	100	35	35	100% chance; 60-80 HP	100% chance; 60-80 HP	100% chance; 60-80 HP
	2	Pillaged: 30 Destroyed: 30	30	30	30	30	30% chance; 60-80 HP	30% chance; 60-80 HP	30% chance; 60-80 HP
Eyjafjallajökull Catastrophic	1	Pillaged: 100 Destroyed: 75	75	100	30	30	100% chance; 40-60 HP	100% chance; 40-60 HP	100% chance; 40-60 HP
Eyjafjallajökull Megacolossal	1	Pillaged: 100 Destroyed: 80	80	100	40	40	100% chance; 60-80 HP	100% chance; 60-80 HP	100% chance; 60-80 HP
	2	Pillaged: 40 Destroyed: 40	40	40	40	40	40% chance; 60-80 HP	40% chance; 60-80 HP	40% chance; 60-80 HP
Kilimanjaro Gentle	1	Pillaged: 100	0	100	0	0	0	0	0
Kilimanjaro Catastrophic	1	Pillaged: 100 Destroyed: 80	80	100	20	20	100% chance; 40-60 HP	100% chance; 40-60 HP	100% chance; 40-60 HP
	2	Pillaged: 50 Destroyed: 50	50	50	50	50	50% chance; 40-60 HP	50% chance; 40-60 HP	50% chance; 40-60 HP
Vesuvius Megacolossal	1	Pillaged: 100 Destroyed: 80	80	100	100	100	100% chance; 70-90 HP	100% chance; 70-90 HP	100% chance; 70-90 HP
	2	Pillaged: 50 Destroyed: 50	50	50	50	50	50% chance; 70-90 HP	50% chance; 70-90 HP	50% chance; 70-90 HP

Compared to other disaster types, yields from eruptions are the best. Of course, this comes with higher devastation, as mentioned above. The table below shows the percentage chance of a tile to gain +1 of the given yield per eruption.

Volcano type	Severity	Food yield	Production yield	Science yield	Culture yield
Normal Volcano	Gentle	35	15	0	0
	Catastrophic	50	25	10	0
	Megacolossal	75	35	15	0
Eyjafjallajökull	Catastrophic	50	25	10	0
	Megacolossal	75	35	15	0
Mount Kilimanjaro	Gentle	50	25	0	0
	Catastrophic	50	35	15	0
Mount Vesuvius	Megacolossal	25	25	25	50

In-game disaster descriptions

Volcano type	Severity	Description
Normal Volcano	Gentle	People gaze skyward in concern, watching smoke rise from a once-quiet volcano.
	Catastrophic	People living near the volcano flee as lava and ash blankets the surrounding land.
	Megacolossal	People flee in terror as pyroclastic flows lash the slopes of the volcano and jets of smoke pour into the sky!
Eyjafjallajökull	Catastrophic	People must go far out of their way to avoid the huge plume of ash that erupts from Eyjafjallajökull.
	Megacolossal	Eyjafjallajökull tears open a rift in the earth, as if the goddess Hel herself were escaping from the netherworld!
Mount Kilimanjaro	Gentle	People and animals view the rising column of ash from Kilimanjaro from miles around, and wonder at the Earth’s fury.
	Catastrophic	Kilimanjaro roars, and a plume of smoke and ash jets into the sky, as people and animals flee in terror!
Mount Vesuvius	Megacolossal	Citizens scream in terror and flee towards safety as the pyroclastic wave crashes down the flanks of Vesuvius!

Gallery

A volcano erupts!

A volcano erupts!