Answer: No. Since there are on average between 50 and 60 volcanoes that erupt each year somewhere on Earth (about 1 every week), some of Earth's volcanoes may actually erupt within a few days or hours of each other. Upon closer inspection, however, the eruptions are almost always
preceded by very different build-up periods in terms of time (days to weeks to months to years) and type of activity (earthquakes, ground deformation, gas emissions, and small eruptions). The "trigger" of this precursory activity is the key to understanding what causes an eventual eruption at any one volcano, not the timing of significant eruptions hundreds to thousands of km apart.
According to the theory of plate tectonics, the location and frequency of volcanism on Earth is due primarily to the way in which our planet's surface is divided into large sections or plates and how they move relative to each other, and the formation of deep "thermal plumes" that rise from the core-mantle boundary about 3,200 km below the surface. These mechanisms and the fact that even
nearby volcanoes erupt magma with different and often unique chemical composition (evidence that each volcano has a separate unique shallow magma reservoir) strongly suggests there is unlikely to be any cause and effect relationship between volcanic eruptions separated hundreds
to thousands of km apart.
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