Blew up is perhaps a little more colloquial. Erupted is slightly more formal. In English we have many verbs that can be a verb plus a preposition or a verb without a preposition. For example he came in. He entered. He put up with a lot. He tolerated a lot.
If you research the subject you would find that most of these differences go back to 1066 when the Normans invaded England. French became the language of the government, the church and the army. So frequently we have words that have an English (Germanic) origin and we have words that have a French origin. Ordinarily the French equivalent is considered a little more literary.