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 claim is disputed, not an expert so i have no idea. But there does seem to be a arguement about that.
As long as Yellowstone continues to vent it is not that big a worry. It is when it doesn't vent that we should worry. That said, what is the evidence for repeated super-volcanos. I'm not saying, but only speculating that they could be one time events...where the explosion destroys the process leading to the vent in the first place.
yellowstone is one huge volcano (caldera) its surface has rose 2-3 feet in the recent past. when it goes
so do the cockroaches. :D
Actually the more ventng the more to worry about. The venting we see at yellowstone is not the volcano venting, it is groundwater being heated by the magma chamber. the more venting the closer the magma chamber is to the ground water and the earth surface. If the magma chamber gets winin a few miles of the surface ...... BOOM!
"We should be able to tap into this gas as an energy source."
You can and it is(well the heat not the gas), it's called geothermal energy. You shoot water down a hole, the hot ground turns it to steam and you use that to spin a turbine to produce electricity.
The gas is a noxious mix of toxic elements that make dirty coal technology look as clean as solar power. I'm not sure how you would use the sulfurous gases as anything but a giant fart gun.
Just a side note, another one that threatens to go off on a massive scale is Long Valley
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/california/long_valley.html
Well, there was an earthquake the day after Christmas, and the day after Easter. What's the next big Christian holiday? The earthquake'll happen the next day...
Can't we just drop a tactical nuke on any such volcano to take it out before it erupts?
"...what is the evidence for repeated super-volcnaos"? - blanknoone
The underlying "Yellowstone" structure began with a comet strike that punctured the upper and lower crust of the earth, causing lava flows that formed the Columbia River Plateau - in Washington State! Later, as the upper crust moved towards the Pacific, the punctured lower crust again allowed massive flows, forming the Snake River Plain - in Idaho. Now, Yellowstone, in Wyoming, has moved over that same weakened lower crust; it's blown in a big way there three times, so far. Repetition enough?
Volumes, in cubic miles, of major eruptions (the last three are Yellowstone):
Mount St Helens, 1980 -- 0.24 c.m.
Pinatubo, 1991 -- 2.4 c.m.
Krakatoa, 1883 -- 4.3 c.m.
Mount Mazama, ~ 7600 ya -- 18 c.m.
Tambora, 1815 -- 36 c.m.
Island Park Caldera (West of Yellowstone), 1.3 mya -- 67 c.m.
Yellowstone, 630,000 ya -- 240 c.m.
Yellowstone, 2 million years ago -- 600 cubic miles!
Other "Yellowstone" eruptions may have been larger, but are impossible to measure. The main evidence they've left behind is in the form of the Snake River Plain. The mountains that once stood there were destoyed by successive eruptions as the Yellowstone "hot spot" moved beneath them.
> Or is this another "theory", like "evolution".
That's a good point - on what grounds can they claim this? Sometimes, I have some problems with these modern biology that tell us that evolution is fact, a fetus isn't a person, and dehydration is a good way to die. :P Perhaps it's wrong of me to lump them all together, but you keep seing this sort of assertion of completely speculative stuff as if they're absolute facts.
Yikes! tick, tick, tick.
Exactly. I remember growing up, when a lot of explanations included the phrase, "we think it happened like this...", or "we believe this happened". Now it is all absolute, undeniable fact.
I guess some us frogs in the pot realize that the temperature is slowly being turned up to boiling point. ;)
Got a link? That would be a good read.
Don't forget the Deccan traps (~60my ago) weighing in at 12,000 cubic miles of lava(!)
Welcome to FR, by the way.
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