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To: grizzfan; RightWhale
When Toba blew 75,000 years ago, only 2-5,000 people worldwide survived. The death from the 'nuclear winter' effect from Toba can still be seen in the human genes.

BTW, even the Mormons with their one year 'stash' of food will not survive.

123 posted on 01/01/2004 9:20:10 PM PST by blam
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To: blam; #3Fan; grizzfan; RightWhale

What is a supervolcano?

The term supervolcano has no specifically defined scientific meaning. It was used by the producers of a British TV program in 2000 to refer to volcanoes that have generated Earth's largest volcanic eruptions. As such, a supervolcano would be one that has produced an exceedingly large, catastrophic explosive eruption and a giant caldera. Because Yellowstone has produced three such very large caldera-forming explosive eruptions in the past 2.1 million years, the producers considered it to be a supervolcano.

 

How many supervolcanoes are on Earth and what are some examples of supervolcanoes?

Because there is no well-defined minimum size for a "supervolcano," there is no exact number of such volcanoes. Examples of volcanoes that produced exceedingly voluminous pyroclastic eruptions and formed large calderas in the past 2 million years would include Yellowstone, Long Valley in eastern California, Toba in Indonesia, and Taupo in New Zealand. Other "supervolcanoes" would likely include the large caldera volcanoes of Japan, Indonesia, Alaska (e.g. Aniakchak, Emmons, Fisher), and other areas.


131 posted on 01/01/2004 9:25:15 PM PST by Happy2BMe (2004 - Who WILL the TERRORISTS vote for? - - Not George W. Bush, THAT'S for sure!)
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To: blam
When Toba blew 75,000 years ago, only 2-5,000 people worldwide survived. The death from the 'nuclear winter' effect from Toba can still be seen in the human genes. BTW, even the Mormons with their one year 'stash' of food will not survive.

Yeah, the Yellowstone ash grinds the lungs. I think that's how a lot of the animals in Texas died the last time Yellowstone blew, from lung desease.

138 posted on 01/01/2004 9:31:35 PM PST by #3Fan
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To: blam
Then there's always Thera.

New findings, they say, show that Thera's upheaval was far more violent than previously calculated — many times larger than the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, which killed more than 36,000 people. They say the Thera blast's cultural repercussions were equally large, rippling across the eastern Mediterranean for decades, even centuries.

"It had to have had a huge impact," said Dr. Floyd W. McCoy, a University of Hawaii geologist who has studied the eruption for decades and recently proposed that it was much more violent than previously thought.

The scientists say Thera's outburst produced deadly waves and dense clouds of volcanic ash over a vast region, crippling ancient cities and fleets, setting off climate changes, ruining crops and sowing wide political unrest.

For Minoan Crete, the scientists see direct and indirect consequences. Dr. McCoy discovered that towering waves from the eruption that hit Crete were up to 50 feet high, smashing ports and fleets and severely damaging the maritime economy.

Other scientists found indirect, long-term damage. Ash and global cooling from the volcanic pall caused wide crop failures in the eastern Mediterranean, they said, and the agricultural woes in turn set off political upheavals that undid Minoan friends and trade.

160 posted on 01/01/2004 9:47:07 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: blam
More on Thera.

Early in the Late Bronze Age, the volcano at the center of the island of Santorini (or Thera) erupted on a scale which may have had no parallel among eruptions over the past four or five millennia by volcanoes located in or near densely populated areas of the globe. The caldera (or crater) created by this eruption of the Theran volcano is said to have measured as much as 83 square kilometers in area. It presently extends down as much as 480 meters below sea level inside of the wall of cliffs which ring it and which themselves rise up as much as 300 meters above sea level.

165 posted on 01/01/2004 9:49:11 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: blam
bump
200 posted on 01/01/2004 10:11:50 PM PST by Centurion2000 (Resolve to perform what you must; perform without fail that what you resolve.)
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To: blam
BTW, even the Mormons with their one year 'stash' of food will not survive.

SLC is only about 200 miles from the caldera.

368 posted on 01/02/2004 6:03:06 AM PST by reg45
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