The Bali volcano has sparked a state of emergency in the region, with more than 140,000 people evacuated with the potential of an imminent deadly eruption.
And scientists have now warned changing sea levels and climate change are playing their part in making volcanoes more fierce.
Experts based their research on a mass drying out event around the Mediterranean Sea more than five million years ago known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) or the Messinian Event where the Mediterranean Sea was cut off from the Atlantic Ocean.
This meant there was barely any water around the region for thousands of years.
As a result, the scientists say that the sudden change in pressure around the region had an effect on magma production around the area.
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This led to approximately 13 powerful volcanic eruptions in the area – more than twice the average during the time period of a few thousand years.
Structural geologist Pietro Sternai, from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), said: “We understand that what happens at the Earth’s surface, such as a sudden sea level lowering, causes the pressure to change at depth and has an effect on magma production.
“The single logical explanation is the hypothesis that the sea dried out, since this is the only event powerful enough to alter the Earth’s pressure and magmatic production over the entire Mediterranean.”
The team found through simulations that less pressure from the water causes the surface to lift and allows more magma to build – a process known as “lithospheric unloading”.
Mr Sternei added: “The simulations showed that the only way to account for the proven increase in volcanic activity was that the level (and thus the weight) of the Mediterranean Sea dropped by about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles).”
According to the research published in the journal Nature Geoscience, it might not just be volcanoes which have an effect on climate change, but vice versa.
The news comes as Mt Agung in Bali continues to rumble on, forcing locals to flee the area.
More than 140,000 have been evacuated, despite Indonesian authorities telling half of that number to return home.
Hundreds of tremors are still being recorded with 913 felt on Sunday alone, which indicates that the volcano could erupt imminently.
However there is a chance that an eruption could still be some time away.
Devy Kamil, a senior seismologist, said: “There are some examples where you have swarms of activity for as long as six years and it is not always ended by an eruption.”