[Malsua]

That volume is by far the largest volume of any volcanic eruption in life on earth."

Curious. He claims it would be 100 times greater than Mt St Helens yet, the Yellowstone Caldera had a force 2400 times greater than Mt. ST Helens. Perhaps he's just referring to the volume of material? Somehow the math isn't workin for me.

[Doomonyou]

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/eruption_scale.html

Somehow the math isn't workin for me.

You are correct, Yellowstone was the mother of all eruptions.

[Andrew Byler]

He claims it would be 100 times greater than Mt St Helens yet, the Yellowstone Caldera had a force 2400 times greater than Mt. ST Helens. Perhaps he's just referring to the volume of material? Somehow the math isn't workin for me.

I think he meant in recorded human history. Mt. Toba was pretty big too.

[JohnBovenmyer]

He meant the largest in historical times. I’m not sure how it compared with Santorini (Thera) although that is a far closer comparison than Krakatoa, and must have had far greater effect on history than Tambora. There must have been old people who experienced both Tambora and Krakatoa, but have you ever read of a personal comparison? Tambora was virtually lost to history within a generation, something almost as impressive as its size. The mid-Yellowstone sized Toba was pre-historical (I don’t think even the dream times go back quite that far) and nearly prevented history by wiping us out.