Posted on 05/31/2008 2:28:14 PM PDT by blam
Big Bangs: 'Stirring' Secrets Of Deadly Supervolcanoes Uncovered
Supervolcanoes are orders of magnitude greater than any volcanic eruption in historic times. They are capable of causing long-lasting change to weather, threatening the extinction of species, and covering huge areas with lava and ash. (Credit: iStockphoto/Koch Valérie)
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2008) — Researchers from McGill University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have simulated in the lab the process that can turn ordinary volcanic eruptions into so-called “supervolcanoes,” with potentially devastating worldwide impact.
The study was conducted by Dr. Ben Kennedy and and Dr. Mark Jellinek of UBC’s Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, and Dr. John Stix, chair of McGill University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Their results were published May 25 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Supervolcanoes are orders of magnitude greater than any volcanic eruption in historic times. They are capable of causing long-lasting change to weather, threatening the extinction of species, and covering huge areas with lava and ash.
Using volcanic models made of plexiglass filled with corn syrup, the researchers simulated how magma in a volcano’s magma chamber might behave if the roof of the chamber caved in during an eruption.
“The magma was being stirred by the roof falling into the magma chamber,” Stix explained. “This causes lots of complicated flow effects that are unique to a supervolcano eruption.”
“There is currently no way to predict a supervolcano eruption,” said Kennedy, a post-doctoral fellow at UBC. “But this new information explains for the first time what happens inside a magma chamber as the roof caves in, and provides insights that could be useful when making hazard maps of such an eruption.”
The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 – the only known supervolcano eruption in modern history – was 10 times more powerful than Krakatoa and more than 100 times more powerful than Vesuvius or Mount St. Helens. It caused more than 100,000 deaths in Indonesia alone, and blew a column of ash about 70 kilometres into the atmosphere. The resulting disruptions of the planet’s climate led 1816 to be christened “the year without summer.”
“And this was a small supervolcano,” said Stix. “A really big one could create the equivalent of a global nuclear winter. There would be devastation for many hundreds of kilometres near the eruption and there would be would be global crop failures because of the ash falling from the sky, and even more important, because of the rapid cooling of the climate.”
There are potential supervolcano sites all over the world, most famously under Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the setting of the 2005 BBC/Discovery Channel docudrama Supervolcano, which imagined an almost-total collapse of the world economy following an eruption.
Adapted from materials provided by McGill University.
However, even this did not seem to affect the length or depth of the ice age that was going on at the time. Although the temperature did drop at that time, the temperature pattern doesn't really differ much from the previous ice age. So maybe, be happy, don't worry.
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/textr.htm
It is that simple and that complex. We are only beginning to grasp the vast amount of systems that keep our planet friendly and habitable much less know what they do.
The earth is has a yummy, sugary candy center?
Whenever the Supervolcano under Yellowstone Nat’l Park goes off it will be beyond castrophic, 8,000x as much ash and lava as Mt. St. Helens. Hopefully it won’t happen for at least a few thousand years more, and maybe humans will have some way of dealing better with the aftermath:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/under/under.html
Even the eruptions at Yellowstone pale in comparison with Toba.
Two hundred billion tons of sulphur dioxide alone.
Worldwide, the temperature plummeted 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit, spawning a mini ice age that lasted a thousand years.
Except for the 2-5 thousand humans who survived, we wouldn’t be here.
Refresh yourself with 'space beer'!
Look at the bright side. If man-made global warming exists, we just found a cure for it!
This sounds scary and stuff. There’s a computer model for it, has anyone told Al Gore?
He could raise awareness and make a documentary about it. Maybe we could get congress to make it illegal for volcanoes to go all supery, or something.
Contingency plan: lots of short season, cool weather, low light crops.
And they made it only because they were airlifted out by a fleet of UFO's piloted by Greys.
;’) If there’s any way to conduct such a scam, I’m sure Gore will find it. Beats workin’.
Dunno what I’m supposed to do with this Lava Light... I mean, is it risky to keep in the house? Will it go “super” on my ass?
Amazing how quickly these archaeology/geology threads turn sour. I don’t post science threads anymore.
Ping to post # 10.
“...a fleet of UFO’s piloted by Greys”
What the heck is a grey and why aren’t they purple?
What the heck is a grey and why aren’t they purple?
Beats me, but according to this they do tend towards a bluish grey:
http://www.beyondweird.com/ufos/Grey_Profile_1996.html
thanks for the ping DC, have’t seen your posts in a while - how are ya?
From the maps I’ve seen Denver is right on the border of the kill zone from a Yellowstone eruption. I hope it won’t be a few thousand more years!
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