Supervolcanoes

Supervolcanoes

1. Case Study

   • Yellowstone
     • Located in Yellowstone National Park, North America
     • Volcanic Features
       • 'Old Faithful' the geyser
       • Boiling/bubbling mud
       • Hot springs
       • Caldera shaped not coned shaped
         • You can't see the edge
       • 1000x bigger than average volcano
       • Multiple vents
       • Much bigger & more powerful than normal volcanoes
     • Worldwide effects if it erupted
     • Indications of Eruption
       • Huge earthquakes
       • Seismometers off the scale
         • Rising levels of CO2
       • Hydrothermal explosions
       • Harmonic Tremors
       • More volcanic activity
   • 7 Known Supervolcanoes worldwide
     • 1. Yellowstone Caldera - North Americxa
       • Case Study
     • 2. Lake Toba - Indonesia
     • 3. Taupo Caldera - New Zealand
     • 4. Valles Caldera - New Mexico
     • 5. Long Valley Caldera - North America
     • 6. Aira Caldera - Japan
     • 7. Asia

2. Characteristics

   • If a Supervolcano was to erupt it would be 1000x times bigger than the eruption of Mount St Helens
   • Flat
     • Unlike normal volcanoes which are like mountains, Supervolcanoes are flat
   • Big
     • Supervolancoes cover a large area and are much bigger than normal volcanoes
   • Caldera
     • Supervolcanoes have a Caldera a depression which forms after they erupt. Normal volcanoes just have a crater at the top

3. Effects

   • Worldwide
     • Air becomes polluted
     • Less sunlight
       • Ice age
     • Droughts
     • Air travel halted
     • Crops fail
       • Starvation
         • Death
       • Disease
         • Illness
           • Death
     • Almost all life wiped out
     • Nearly everything is destroyed
       • Resources lost
     • Sulphur dioxide makes atmosphere much colder
       • Ice age
     • Ash blown around
       • Buildings collapse
       • Suffocation
         • Death
       • Buried Alive
       • Breathing problems
   • USA
     • Lots of Ash, magma and rock
     • Power cuts
     • Water contaminated
     • Air hard to breathe
     • Storms
     • Pyroclastic Flows
       • 500mph+ and 800C+
     • 100km radius
     • Food, plants & animals wiped out
     • Millions are killed
     • Thousands are injured
     • Suphur gas poisions air
     • 25000x3 of magma
     • Inhabitable
     • Buildings collapse
       • Ash
         • Suffocation
           • Death

4. Formation

   • 1. Rising magma cannot escape and a large bulge appears on the surface
     • 2. Cracks appear in the surface of the dome or bulge and gas, ash, lava and rocks erupt from the magma chamber
       • 3. The magma chamber collapses forming a depression called a Caldera
   • Supervolcanoes form over Hotspots and on destructive subduction plate margins - where the Oceanic plate goes underneath the contential plate