Supervolcanoes
Posted by Don in Hollister on December 31, 2002 at 13:26:32:

Hi All. As most of you know I’m always asking questions about one thing or another. Most of the time the answers I get are always welcomed. Sometimes they aren’t. This is a case of an answer that wasn’t welcomed. The reason being is that there doesn’t appear to be a way to prepare for it. Take Care…Don in creepy town

"Supervolcanoes are eruptions and explosions of catastrophic proportions. These types of eruptions are absolutely apocalyptic in scale. It is difficult to imagine an eruption this tremendous. The main factor governing the size of this type of eruption of the amount of magma available. If an enormous amount of magma has accumulated in the crust, then you have the potential for a very , very large eruption.

The exact geological conditions needed to create a vast magma chamber exist in only a very few places on earth, so there are only a few known supervolcanoes in the world. The last one to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago [Rampino, Self, 2000). No modern human has ever witnessed a supervolcano eruption. Volcanologists are not even sure where all the supervolcanoes are but one that is known is Yellowstone National Park.

When Yellowstone goes off again, and it will, it will be a disaster for the United States and eventually, for the whole world. We volcanologists believe it would all begin with the magma chamber becoming unstable. Observations would begin by seeing bigger earthquakes, greater uplifting as magma intrudes and gets nearer and nearer the surface. An earthquake may send a rupture through a brittle layer similar to breaking the lid off a pressure cooker. This would generate sheets of magma, which will perhaps rise up to 30, 40 or 50 kilometers sending gigantic amounts of debris into the atmosphere. Pyroclastic flows would cover the whole region, killing tens of thousands of people in the surrounding area."

Click on the link then go to "Is The Forecasting Of The Eruption Of The Yellowstone Supervolcano Possible ?"



Follow Ups:
     ● Re: Supervolcanoes - Canie  11:35:37 - 1/1/2003  (17697)  (1)
        ● Re: Supervolcanoes - Don in Hollister  02:27:28 - 1/2/2003  (17704)  (1)
           ● Re: Supervolcanoes - Canie  08:25:46 - 1/2/2003  (17706)  (0)