10 - 20 volcanoes show volcanic activity on our planet every day. It is not always a creeping hot lava, and clouds of ash billowing upward - a terrible view of an erupting volcano. Often this is little and little activity for the planet. But what happens on Earth if all volcanoes go off at the same time?
Now imagine how 1500 volcanoes, showing unanimity, will work at once, at full capacity. And we do not even undertake to take into account the unknown number of volcanoes that are hidden at the bottom of water basins. However, according to scientists, there is no particular need for this.
As predicted by Parv Sethi, a geologist at the University of Redford in Virginia, "Things are going to get so bad that I wouldn't want to live on earth at this time," he told Live Science.
Scientists are convinced that the activity of all existing volcanoes on Earth at once is negligible to take this into account. However, the hypothetical probability of this catastrophic event cannot be discarded.
So what will happen in the unlikely event that all volcanoes on our planet erupt at the same time?
The consequences of the work of all volcanoes on Earth
This is a terrible prospect, says the geologist after the disaster. An event like this would set the stage for an ecological catastrophe no less severe than a nuclear winter. It is impossible even to say when the ecology of the planet will be restored.
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Ash clouds, volcanic gases, pouring lava are deadly sources for the existence of all living things.
In the first minutes, it will kill those living near volcanoes, while ash, gases and subsequent climate changes will slowly but surely suffocate the survivors in the first hours.
Crimson darkness will cover the planet
Curiously, Hollywood has never put on films about how all volcanoes will work at the same time. But it is not difficult to imagine that the sky at these moments will turn brown-red, flakes of heated ash will make breathing difficult.
The whole action will be accompanied by the "music" of the terrible roar of chaos and destruction, including hot clods of earth falling from heaven.
As Sethi predicts, a thick layer of ash will cover the Earth with a multi-meter blanket, completely cutting off sunlight from the surface. For a long time, the Earth will go into a gray twilight, not even seeing a ray from the Sun.
The list of 1,500 potentially active volcanoes compiled by the US Geological Survey is impressive. Each of the volcanoes is ready to throw thousands of tons of ash into the atmosphere. The list includes those who are like the Yellowstone supervolcano, capable of single-handedly covering the United States in a thin layer of ash.
The acid rain nightmare will cover the plains and mountains
Acid rainfall will destroy all crops that might have survived the ash fallout. Volcanic gases include poisonous nasty things such as hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, all of which will pour out of the atmosphere onto the earth along with rain.
A similar composition of acid rain will poison the groundwater that will pour into the world's water bodies. The triggered extinction process travel up the ocean food chain, destroying marine life.
Researchers confirm a similar link between ocean acidification and Earth's past mass extinctions with volcanic superactivity.
For example, similar massive lava outpourings caused the extinction at the end of the Permian period about 252 million years ago.
This was also noted in the Triassic period 201 million years ago, and at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. "Similar events and mass extinctions are linked," says Paul Renne, a geologist at Berkeley, California's center for Geochronology.
Cold can not be avoided
Particles of dust, ash, and other substances ejected from the bowels of the earth will "drown" the atmosphere down to the stratosphere. The particles will actively reflect sunlight from the Earth, significantly lowering the planet's atmosphere.
For example, the volcano Pinatubo rampage in 1991 - one of the two largest eruptions in the 20th century - lowered temperatures by 0.4 degrees Celsius over two years.
It is difficult to predict how low the Earth's temperature will drop if all volcanoes are triggered at the same time, when ash clouds cover the planet for 10 years. But this will be worse than a nuclear winter - over time, the temperature can drop below 100 degrees.
At the same time, volcanic eruptions will highlight the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which could help offset a global cooling from ash and stratospheric particles.
The smallest will survive under such conditions
Who can survive the deadly volcanic activity? “This will be the time of extremophiles,” experts say.
These organisms already inhabit highly acidic environments, such as the Yellowstone Conservation Area (hot springs), or deep underwater wells protected from surface damage.
For these organisms, everything will be like a clean slate, they will get a serious chance of an evolutionary explosion.
Well, most likely, some people will get a chance to survive, hiding in deep well-built underground shelters, where a reliable system of the biosphere region was created. In such conditions, it is possible to wait out the required time before cleaning the atmosphere.