Supervolcano is the most destructive force on our planet. The power of its eruption is tens of times greater than that of an ordinary volcano. Supervolcanoes have been dormant for hundreds of thousands of years: magma, which is trapped in huge reservoirs inside their vents, accumulates over time to pour out onto the surface of the earth with an apocalyptic force that could even destroy entire continents. There are only a few such sleeping monsters on the planet …
The last eruption of a supervolcano
The last eruption of a supervolcano happened 75 thousand years ago. This happened in Sumatra. The cataclysm changed life on Earth. Thousands of cubic kilometers of ash were thrown into the atmosphere; there was so much of it that the rays of the sun could not penetrate its thickness. The result was a global temperature drop of 21 °. Within a radius of 4500 km from the volcano, a layer of ash 35 cm thick covered the land surface. An enormous amount of water vapor and poisonous gases from the volcano condensed into gigantic clouds that poured out with acid rain.
The dust that rose for several years made the atmosphere opaque to sunlight. The photosynthesis of green plants has decreased dramatically. As a result, the food chain was disrupted. Humanity is on the brink of survival, the population of the planet has decreased by 10 times. The number of animals decreased by the same number of times, many of the species became extinct. 3/4 of the plant kingdom of the northern hemisphere died.
What is the difference between a supervolcano and a volcano
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The supervolcano differs from the usual one in many ways. So, ordinary volcanoes have the shape of a tower-like cone. Supervolcanoes, on the other hand, are huge cauldron-like depressions or depressions in the ground with a flat bottom, called calderas. When an ordinary volcano erupts, the lava gradually rises up the vent to a crater at the top of the mountain and pours down.
In supervolcanoes, when magma is near the Earth's surface, it does not reach it and instead begins to fill up huge underground reservoirs. Magma melts rock and becomes even thicker and denser. It is so dense that the volcanic gases that erupt in ordinary volcanoes cannot pass through it and a colossal amount of molten magma presses down on the earth's surface. It gradually begins to seep and flows through cracks in the rock. This continues for millennia until an eruption occurs that breaks open the entire surface of the supervolcano, forming a new caldera.
The caldera that remained after the last such eruption shaped the present face of Sumatra.
It should be noted that supervolcanoes are so large and indistinctly expressed that they can be detected only by photographing the earth's surface from satellites. Traces from past eruptions disfigure the face of the planet, like pockmarks. Some are at the bottom of the ocean.
So far, not all supervolcanoes that exist on our planet have been discovered.
Supervolcano in section
Yellowstone supervolcano
As it turned out, one of the largest is located in Yellowstone National Park in America. It is curious, but at first scientists, suspecting that the features of the reserve (geysers, warm streams, etc.) were caused by volcanic activity, could not find this caldera … because of its enormous size! This is because it is visible only from the Earth's orbit. When studying satellite images, we found out that the supervolcano occupies the entire territory of the park with dimensions of 85 km by 45 km! Beneath the hiking trails, groves and lakes is a monstrous magma reservoir.
A computer model was built by geologists to try to calculate the date of the next eruption. The initial data are as follows: the land in Yellowstone has risen by 75 cm compared to the level of 1923, which may indicate intensive processes under the surface of the park. At the moment, the underground reservoir of the volcano is filling with magma at an alarming rate. The calculations that have been made show that the period between the explosions of the supervolcano is approximately 600 thousand years. The last eruption happened about 650 thousand years ago, which means that we are on the eve of another explosion!
What will be the eruption in Yellowstone
The computer model made it possible to trace the possible course of the disaster. Before the eruption, a strong earthquake will begin in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The soil will no longer rise quickly. An earthquake will break the rock layer holding the magma inside, and under enormous pressure, molten rocks accumulated over 650 thousand years will break out …
During the eruption, magma will be ejected into the atmosphere at an altitude of 50 km. Within a radius of 1000 km, virtually all life will be destroyed by falling ash and lava, which will spread out under the influence of the enormous force of the eruption for many hundreds of kilometers. Volcanic ash will cover even areas as remote from the supervolcano as Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of cubic kilometers of lava will pour out of the caldera - enough to cover the entire surface of North America with a layer of 15 cm!
Effects
The eruption will have a force 2500 times greater than the force of the last eruption of Vesuvius. This will be the worst catastrophe seen by man in the last 75 thousand years since the last eruption of the supervolcano. Tens of thousands of people will die within minutes of the eruption. And the long-term effect caused by the eruption will be even more devastating.
Thousands of cubic kilometers of ash ejected into the atmosphere will block out sunlight, leading to a global drop in temperature on the planet. What is commonly called the "nuclear winter" will come. Just like after the explosion in Sumatra, a huge number of animals and plants will die due to falling ash and a decrease in temperature. Nearly all crops grown in North America will disappear within hours as they are covered in ash.
The most severe destruction, of course, will fall on America and Canada, but other states will also suffer from lower temperatures and acid rain. Due to the global destruction of animals and plants around the world, people will experience food shortages. If the temperature drops by 21 degrees, as in the last super-eruption, an ice age will begin in both hemispheres, and ice will cover vast areas that will become uninhabitable.
Supervolcanoes and meteor impacts
There is ongoing exploration in Yellowstone National Park. Geologists monitor the state of the caldera, and survey the earth's surface from satellites. Scientists have presented a report to the US Congress on research in the park.
It should be noted that scientists cannot give an unambiguous answer to the question of the origin of calderas. Unlike the calderas in Sumatra and Yellowstone, which are apparently explained by the explosions of supervolcanoes, there are craters, most likely left by the fall of meteorites. These are, for example, the calderas in Arizona and Australia. The diameter of the latter is 10 km. This ancient crater, destroyed by erosion, can only be seen from space.
Scientists from America D. Raup and J. Sepkoski discovered that the extinction of certain species of animals and plants on the planet occurs at a certain frequency. From the same one from which monstrous craters appear on the surface of the earth! Obviously, it is with such a periodicity that the Earth is bombarded by some cosmic bodies. Scientists have calculated that large objects - several kilometers in diameter - could break through the earth's crust, which is an average of 20 km thick, and cause incredible earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The fall of a meteorite about 75 thousand years ago can be evidenced by the geological structure of the earth's crust. In marine and continental sediments, the content of clays, including iridium, is increased. This element is rarely found on Earth, but is characteristic of meteorites.
Impact traces of near-Earth celestial objects can be seen by looking at the Moon or Mars. The earth's surface might look the same if not for the atmosphere and the effect of erosion, smoothing out the impact marks.
The deepest crisis experienced by the biosphere 75 thousand years ago was not the first and not the most powerful and catastrophic in the history of life on Earth. It could have been caused not only by the fall of a meteorite, but also by the eruption of a supervolcano.
Humanity is faced with the question of how to escape from such disasters, or at least reduce the destructive effect caused by them. So far, it is only obvious that such issues can only be resolved together.
N. Nepomniachtchi