Posted on 04/01/2005 3:01:49 PM PST by DannyTN
"Super volcano" could dwarf Indonesia's earthquake catastrophes: expert
Fri Apr 1,12:21 AM ET Science - AFP
SYDNEY (AFP) - As Indonesians struggled to recover from the second deadly earthquake to strike them in three months, an Australian expert warned the country faced the prospect of a "super volcano" eruption that would dwarf all previous catastrophes.
AFP/File Photo
Professor Ray Cas of Monash University's School of Geosciences said the world's biggest super volcano was Lake Toba, on Indonesia's island of Sumatra, site of both the recent massive earthquakes.
Cas told Australian media Friday that Toba sits on a faultline running down the middle of Sumatra -- just where some seismologists say a third earthquake might strike following the 9.0 magnitude quake on December 26 and Monday's 8.7 temblor.
Those quakes occurred along faultlines running just off Sumatra's west coast and created seismological stresses which could hasten an eruption.
Cas said Toba last erupted 73,000 years ago in an event so massive that it altered the entire world's climate.
"The eruption released 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic miles) of ash and rock debris into the atmosphere, much of it as fine ash which blocked out solar radiation, kicking the world back into an ice age," he said.
The scientist said super volcanos represented the greatest potential hazard on earth, "the only greater threat being an asteroid impact from space".
"A super volcano will definitely erupt," he said.
"It could be in a few, 50 or another 1000 years but sooner or later one is going to go off."
Other super volcanos are found in Italy, South America, the United States and New Zealand -- where Mount Taupo could be ready for eruption.
"It has a big eruption every 2,000 years, and it last erupted about 2,000 years ago," Cas said.
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.
Sure. These things have happened and will happen. On our watch? Hah! The Red Sox will win the World Series first.
No, no when the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl, then it really will be time to panic.
DannyTN just showed you one in the USA.
Bummer mate.
Yellowstone is a supervolcano. Seriously, what is all the steam and sulfur and frequent earthquakes all about? And that is when it is quiescent.
Well, that ought to take care of Global Warming ;O).
Enjoy the day, Mate.
BFD - So what can anybody DO about it?
Woo haw! Another gloom & doom we're all gonna die article.
Smoehow I figure if they keep writing them, it won't happen.
No it won't. It is scientific fact that the moon is moving away from the earth. It will someday be gone but it will never collide with the earth.
The biggest badest volcano of them all is right here in the good old USA,Yellowstone, and it goes off large about every 600,000 years. And the last large eruption was, you guessed it, 600,000 years ago.
Oh, sure. These things have been happening for millions of years and will happen again.
Maybe tomorrow, maybe not for another 10,000 years. But 10,000 years is but a blip on a geological scale.
We need to start bleeding off the excess energy at these supervolcano sites.
In the beginning the moon was only 40,000 miles away. can you imagine that the tides must have been like! yikes!
Well, actually, we are all going to die.
Volcano by JIMMY BUFFETT
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Chorus:
Let me say now I don't know
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Ground she's movin' under me
Tidal waves out on the sea
Sulphur smoke up in the sky
Pretty soon we learn to fly
Chorus:
Let me hear ya now I don't know
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Now my girl quickly say to me
Mon you better watch your feet
Lava come down soft and hot
You better lava me now or lava me not
Chorus:
Let me say now I don't know
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
-- Spoken: "Mr Utley..."
No time to count what I'm worth
'Cause I just left the planet earth
Where I go I hope there's rum
Not to worry mon soon come
Chorus:
Now I don't know
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Chorus:
One more now I don't know (ah he don't know)
I don't know (he don't know, mon)
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
But I don't want to land in New York City
Don't want to land in Mexico (no no no)
Don't want to land on no Three Mile Island
Don't want to see my skin aglow (no no no)
Don't want to land in Commanche Sky park
Or in Nashville, Tennessee (no no no)
Don't want to land in no San Juan airport
Or the Yukon Territory (no no no)
Don't want to land no San Diego
Don't want to land in no Buzzards Bay (no no no)
Don't want to land on no Ayotollah
I got nothing more to say
Chorus:
I don't know
I don't know
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Chorus:
Just a one more, I don't know (he don't know)
I don't know (I don't know, man)
I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the volcano blow
Not as bad as the instability when the moon is gone though. Apparently it will make the earth uninhabitable.
I would love to have seen Krakatoa when she blew. My father spent many years retelling me the story of how a ship in English waters heard the explosion and thought it was a nearby ship in distress.
I'd also would've love to have seen Vesuvius when she blew. Pliny the Elder did, but then he and his little boat were 'bye bye' after he saw it, so I guess I will just have to postpone my Sumatra vacation and ask those living there to
GET THE HECK OUTATHERE!
The Ring of Fire is not just a Johnny Cash song.
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