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.
