With the two massive earthquakes that have struck near Indonesia there has been talk about a so called supervolcano. What's the difference beetwen a regular volcano and a super volcano? How much stronger is a super volcano than a regular volcano? And do super volcanoes have any earth-ending capabilities?
Supervolcanoes have huge eruptions, pyroclastic clouds and are capable of turning the skies dark over a majority of the world. A super volcano eruption would make Mt. St. Helen or Vesuvious look like a walk in the park. Ashes and toxic fumes could be widespread, example Yellowstone eruption could send ashes towards the lower states. The skies would darken and block the sun out from a lot of the earth causing a sort of nuclear winter sort of effect. Crops would probably die with the sun blocked. It would be a disaster that would affect a lot of the world no matter where thte volcano blew.
the super volcano there talking about is suppose to be bigger well the biggest one of all them that there talking about, I read a article about this some where let me see if i can find it, it was on yahoo news
here is a few links http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/fc...sc_afp/asiaquakeindonesiavolcano_050401052129 http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vw_hyperexchange/toba.html http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0601-09=
The potential death toll from a super volcano eruption "could reach the hundreds of thousands to millions and there are serious implications on climate, weather and viability of food production," Cas said. "The big problem is a lot of the volcanoes that potentially could erupt are perhaps not monitored to the degree that they should be, and of course we learnt that lesson from the Boxing Day tsunami disaster," he said. thats a quote from that article
OK, I'll give you an example of the difference between regular and super-volcanoes from New Zealand, because it's the area I know best. In 1995, there was an eruption from Ruapehu, in the central North Island of NZ. The eruption was quite spectacular, and created mischief with the airlines because every time the mountain blew up, the wind would spread the ash in a slightly different direction and 'planes would have to be rerouted to get around the messy bit of sky. You've probably heard of what happened a few years ago in Indonesia, when the volcano Galangung was erupting, and a jet flew into the cloud at night and all four engines stopped. They dropped thousands of feet before the crew managed to get the engines going again and landed safely. That sort of thing is best avoided if possible--it tends to put people of flying, for one thing. Anyway, Ruapehu produced about a cubic kilometre of ash--that's about 1/4 of a cubic mile. By contrast, Taupo (last time it erupted) produced about 120 cubic km (26 cubic miles). The ash-cloud affected sunsets in Europe, and was mentioned in Roman records. Ash from Taupo turned up in the Greenland icesheet. The explosion was heard in China, at Anyang, the Han capital. Further, the eruption-cycle occupied over 100 years from beginning to end, with the greatest event being the last outburst in 232 AD. The reason why Taupo and other supervolcanoes produce such big blasts is the type of magma they produce. It all depends how much silica is in the magma-mix. The lowest silica content is found in Hawaiian volcanoes, and the lava runs like water. Andesite vbolcanoes (first described in the Andes, hence the name) have the classic volcanic cone shape, and intermediate silica content, between 45 and 65% of the mix. Anything above 65% is termed rhyolite, and this produces two types of volcanoes. Either you have magma that comes out of the ground very slowly, like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube; this forms volcanic cones that are steep-sided and flat-topped, (rhyolite domes) like Mount Tarawera in the Bay of Plenty. Alternately, you have volcanoes like Taupo, where the magma is so silica-rich that there's just an immense hole blasted in the ground. There is a way to predict fairly accurately when rhyolitic volcanoes are about to go off. They will sometimes produce a basaltic eruption from a rhyolite dome volcano, up to 150 years before the main rhyolitic blast occurs. It seems to 'clear the throat' of the rhyolitic centre before the major event. The last time sort of basaltic eruption occurred was from Tarawera in June of 1886. On that schedule, a major rhyolitic blast from the Okataina caldera (of which Mount Tarawera is a part) will occur some time in the decade of the 2030's. Going by past events, this will cause the blanketing of about 10-20,000 square miles of the central North Island with ash, and will probably lead to the evacuation of most of the island.
It'll end the world. It leaves me to ponder...Out here in PA, will we get anything? If it does end the world...obviously it will...but as I said before...if it doesnt....
If a supervolcano erupts in your lifetime like Yellowstone (circa: 638,000BC) or even TOBA (circa: 72,000BC), then plan on taking fewer shopping trips to the market to buy food. There won't be to many left around to choose from. Novacane
