Giant ash cloud from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, towering above farms and agricultural lands in the Philippines. Skip to main content. Search Search. Natural Hazards. Learn more: Caldera systems--a worldwide family that is more than just Yellowstone! A personal commentary: Why I dislike the tern "supervolcano" and what we should be saying instead. Apply Filter. Is Yellowstone overdue for an eruption? When will Yellowstone erupt? Yellowstone is not overdue for an eruption.
Volcanoes do not work in predictable ways and their eruptions do not follow predictable schedules. In terms of large explosions, Yellowstone has experienced three at 2. This comes out What type of eruption will Yellowstone have if it erupts again? The most likely explosive event to occur at Yellowstone is actually a hydrothermal explosion —a rock-hurling geyser eruption—or a lava flow.
Hydrothermal explosions are very small; they occur in Yellowstone National Park every few years and form a crater a few meters across. Every few thousand years, a hydrothermal explosion will form a crater as What was the largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century? The world's largest eruption of the 20th century occurred in at Novarupta on the Alaska Peninsula.
An estimated 15 cubic kilometers of magma was explosively erupted during 60 hours beginning on June 6th. This volume is equivalent to years of eruption at Kilauea Hawaii or about 30 times the volume erupted by Mount St.
Helens Washington Where does the United States rank in the number of volcanoes? The United States ranks third, behind Indonesia and Japan, in the number of historically active volcanoes that is, those for which we have written accounts of eruptions. In addition, about 10 percent of the more than 1, volcanoes that have erupted in the past 10, years are located in the United States. Most of these volcanoes are found in Where is the largest active volcano in the world?
Rising gradually to more than 4 km 2. Its submarine flanks descend to the sea floor an additional 5 km 3 mi , and the sea floor in turn is depressed by Mauna Loa's great mass another 8 km 5 mi. This makes the volcano's summit about 17 km What was the most destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the United States?
The May 18, eruption of Mount St. Helens Washington was the most destructive in the history of the United States. Novarupta Katmai Volcano in Alaska erupted considerably more material in , but owing to the isolation and sparse population of the region, there were no human deaths and little property damage.
In contrast, the eruption of What are some examples of supervolcanoes? Volcanoes that have produced exceedingly voluminous pyroclastic eruptions and formed large calderas in the past 2 million years include Yellowstone, Long Valley in eastern California, Toba in Indonesia, and Taupo in New Zealand.
Although there are only a handful of Quaternary supervolcanoes, supervolcanic eruptions typically cover huge areas with lava and volcanic ash and cause a long-lasting change to weather such as the triggering of a small ice age sufficient to threaten species with extinction. What are the characteristics of a supervolcano? The magma gets stuck and pools, melting the rock around for thousands of years. Over thousands of years the pressure builds up and when the eruption eventually happens it drains the magma lake and the land above collapse down over, creating a caldera.
What are the likely effects of supervolcanoes? Supervolcanoes are eruptions and explosions of catastrophic proportions, on the Volcano Explosivity Index VEI supervolcanoes are an 8 on a scale that runs from 1 to 8.
Each leap up the scale represents an increase of explosive scale of 10 times the power. There have been estimates that a major eruption of Yellowstone would result in at least 1m of ash being deposited across the UK!
Enter your search terms Submit search form Web InternetGeography. Enter your search terms Submit search form. A hot spring steams and bubbles in Yellowstone National Park, the surface manifestation of the caldera simmering below.
This latter supervolcano is the last to have ever released a super-eruption, which burst free some 26, years ago. Take Krakatau's eruption for example. The explosions were so loud, they could be heard nearly 3, miles away on Rodriguez Island, and they triggered towering tsunami waves that killed more than 36, people.
Still, even that beast rated at VEI 6. A volcano doesn't need to have a super-eruption to be dangerous; if people are nearby as it explodes, even small eruptions pose many hazards.
That said, not all volcanic eruptions are dangerous. If an eruption takes place far from populations and flight paths, no one may even notice that the peak burst its top. Supervolcanoes can occur in many situations. Some, like Yellowstone, can be due to hot spots, rising plumes of magma from deep inside Earth. Hot spots generate a trail of volcanoes as the ever-moving tectonic plates slowly march across the largely stationary plume, like the lengthy chain of volcanoes of the Hawiian Islands.
Others, like Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia , can form along subduction zones where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another. As the descending landmass sinks deep underground, temperatures and pressures climb, forcing the water from the rocks. That water reduces the melting point of the overlying rocks, forming magma that can fuel future eruptions. Regardless of how the magma forms, however, a volcano needs a lot of it to produce a super-eruption.
As the magma builds, pressure in the underground cavity increases. A super-eruption requires tons of pressure to actually jettison the huge pockets of molten rock through the surface. While a super-eruption would no doubt be devastating, it wouldn't be a world-ending affair. For an idea of the effects of such an eruption, we could look to the explosion of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. At a VEI of 7, this explosion was not quite a super-eruption, but it gives a sense of the many dangers of such mega-blasts.
The explosion sent a superheated plume of hot ash and gas 28 miles into the air, upon its collapse producing searing avalanches known as pyroclastic flows. Such immediate hazards killed around ten thousand people, but that wasn't the only concern.
The gasses and ash injected into the atmosphere darkened the skies, blotted out the sun, and altered the climate, resulting in what became known as the year without summer. Extensive crop failures, starvation, and disease followed, which killed around 82, more people. What's most important to keep in mind about modern eruptions is that agencies around the world are keeping a close watch on supervolcanoes like Yellowstone, monitoring their every tremor and magma-laden belch.
Volcanoes provide some notice of pending eruption and modern equipment helps scientists take their pulse with more accuracy than ever before. So while a super-eruption in the near future is exceedingly unlikely, these agencies will be the first to know and alert the public if one ever becomes imminent. All rights reserved.
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