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.
That's been confirmed through DNA through the rate of mutations.
I would love to have seen Krakatoa when she blew.
My Grand mother was a young girl living in N.Dakota when it blew. She told tales of how cold it was that year and how spectacular the sunsets were.
I take it your grandmother is no longer with us, but told you these stories when you were young?
Did she tell you of anything else? That's pretty interesting, to know someone who can remember something so really fascinating as that tremendous force of nature.
Stockpile ammunition so you can steal from the folks who stockpiled food.
She went home in 58 at the age of 96, so no I don't remember too many. She raised ten kids basically after her husband died. I do remember she was NOT a woman to be...trifled with, and if you left the straight and narrow she would let you know in no uncertain terms that you had transgressed and you'd better mend your ways.
I must've missed the news story which announced that the "missing link" had been discovered...;o
LMAO
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