A recap on volcanoes and introduction to supervolcanoes including Yellowstone

1. I live by the volcano because….

2. The hazards of volcanoes
- Pyroclastic flows- hot, fast (200km/h)
Contain poisonous gas, rocks and sand
- Ash clouds
Suffocation , buildings collapse due to weight
- Volcanic bombs
Chunks of rock fired out, range several km
- Lava
Buildings and crops hit, people mostly escape
- Poisonous gas
Carbon monoxide, sulphurous gases- acid rain

3. How can you predict volcanoes?

4. Locations...
Even Ancient ones in
Glencoe, Scotland &
USA – Yellowstone,Wyoming; Scafell in Lake District!
Long Valley, California; Siberia, Russia
Longridge, Oregon
Kyushu,
Japan
Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia
New Zealand

5. Recipe for a supervolcano
Ingredients
- A hot spot
Method
1) Allow hot spot to spew
magma
2) Let the magma build up
underneath the surface
3) Ensure that the magma builds
up to the point where the rock
around begins to melt,
creating a large chamber
4) Wait until the pressure builds

6. Recipe for a supervolcano
Ingredients
- A hot spot
You know you have followed
the direcions carefully if
Your supervolcano blows the
whole surface of the magma
chamber away, leaving a
caldera (see photo)

7. Cause/Formation of a supervolcano...
Yellowstone is
caused by an
underground
HOTSPOT not plate
margins...

8. Scale and Past
Supervolcanic
Eruptions

9. Supervolcanoes
• Erupts at least 1000km3 of magma
- NOT characteristic cone shaped
- depressions in the ground (very hard to spot)
• last supervolcano to erupt was 74000 years
ago in Indonesia a gigantic volcanic eruption
shook the earth
• The ash was thrown out 3000km, created
global cooling and created a crater larger
than the city of London (now Lake Toba)

10. Supervolcano vs volcano
Would eject more than • Mount St. Helens in
1,000 cubic kilometers 1980 erupted less than
(240 cubic miles) of one cubic kilometre of
pumice and ash in a single magma
event

11. Yellowstone
Active Supervolcano
Over 3 million people visit the park every year
hot spot beneath Yellowstone
• 2 million years ago this hotspot settled under
Yellowstone
• 2.1 bil years ago- Caldera explosion= 80km
mountains gone