The Yellowstone Volcano could erupt with 10,000 times the force of the explosion at Mount. St. Helens in 1980.Have you heard about Supervolcanoe? Is it just a common volcanoe?
Will this so called the supervolcanoe will push mankind to the brink of extinction?
During weekend, I sent my car to Perodua Service Centre in Malacca for second time black oil free service. I woke up at around 8.15am then I reached there around 8.35am. The Service Centre opens at 8.30am.
When I reached there........ wah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of people were waiting there adi, jia lat this time!
The first time service, my bf did for me and according to him we need to be more earlier else we needed to wait for a long time. Really shit of the shit! But I think still alright la.
While waiting my car to be serviced, I saw one channel "Discovery Geography". Wah! I like it since I was young. This time, the topic was very interesting named as "Supervolcanoe".
The first thought of this keyword for me is "It might be the biggest volcanoe in the world"!
However, my assumption was wrong after viewed the channel.
According to the
wikipedia, a
supervolcano refers to a volcano that produces the largest and most voluminous kinds of eruption on earth. The actual explosivity of these eruptions varies, but the sheer volume of ejected tephra is enough to radically alter the landscape and severely impact global climate for years, with a cataclysmic effect on life
From some of the Goggle resources, I found out that actually there is no exact definition for the super volcano but normally the common term refer to the volcanoes which have produced exceptionally massive eruptions in the past. When it happened, a huge amount of material is blasted out of the super volcano and for sure it will leave a giant crater or caldera. Such a caldera can be as much as forty or fifty miles wide.
Yellowstone National Park's beautiful scenery, fantastic geysers and hot springs considered one of the most famous place throughout all over the world.
As we know, at the northern part of United State there is a Yellowstone which considered as the crown jewels of the U.S. Its mountain vistas, wildlife and geographic features are visited and admired by people from around the world. More than any of those, however, it's the park's thermo-geological features that make it unlike any other part of the globe. No place on earth has as many steam vents, hot springs and active geysers as Yellowstone. To create such a unique features requires two elements in abundance which are a lot of waters and lot of heat needed. The water maybe provided by the generous rain and snow regions and the heat comes from the deep inside the earth so called volcanic heat. Thus, scientists believe that the Yellowstone National Park is built on one of the ancient volcanoe and not just a regular volcanoe either.
Since, there is no firm information to prove what a super volcano and it is hard to say how many of them are found on the earth as well. However, most of the people listed Long Valley in eastern California and Taupo in New Zealand as super volcano sites along with Yellowstone. The last known explosion of what might be considered a super volcano was Toba in Indonesia. Toba erupted with a titanic explosion about 74,000 years ago. The force of the explosion was estimated to be 10,000 more powerful than the blast that destroyed Mount St. Helens, in Washington. Tremendous amounts of rock and ash were ejected into the air, blocking the sun for months. The temperature around the globe was thought to have plummeted as much as 21 degrees. Perhaps as much as 75% of plant life on the North American continent may died out.
A super volcanoe is different from a regular volcanoe as normally there is no mountain peak associated with it. In a super volcanoe the magma is blocked from ever reaching the surface. Instead, the pressure just builds and builds until more and more rock in the area melts and becomes magma too. The area under the surface becomes one huge underground sea of semi-molton rock. Finally, the pressure becomes too much to hold back and the entire surface above the underground chamber, which can be many miles wide, is blown away by a titanic explosion that can be thousands of times more powerful than that of a regular volcano. The Mount St. Helens considered as the level 5 volcanoe and this super volcanoe listed as level eight volcanoe.
Super volcanoe believed happen at the Yellowstone approximately 650,000 years ago but Yellowstone continues to be geologically active even today. Some amateur geologists connected these events with the history of the Yellowstone volcano and came to some troubling conclusions: The catastrophic caldera making eruptions have occurred. at 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 650,000 years ago. Was another one about to happen?
Still, the super volcano at Yellowstone, and its kin around the world are a credible threat to man. Even the United States Geological Survey, usually conservative about such matters, admits that should a major eruption occur the results would have "global consequences that are beyond human experience and impossible to anticipate fully."
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Monday, July 30, 2007
