Yellowstone supervolcano

Why?
1. lies on a hotspot
  1. magma chamber 80km long / 40km wide / 8 km deep
    1. 20-25,000cubic km of magma
    2. contains 5x the magam needed to make a supervolcano = 5,000cubic km of magma
What?
1. cataclismic eruption
  1. 1000+ cubic km material (magma and pyroclastic material)
    1. immensely violent VEI 8
      1. 100m thick ash and tephra
    2. less violent basaltic flood
2. Caldera - flat and sunken crater
When?
1. every 600,000 yrs
2. last one c.640,000 yrs ago
Where?
1. Yelowstone Park,
  1. Norris Geyser Basin
    1. 2003 - increase in ground temps to 100C / more frequent geyser eruptions / more gases from vents / 5 bison died of hydrogen sulphide & carbon dioxide poisoning / trees died / closed to public
    2. uplift due to magma rising or gas levels increasing
So what?
1. immediate effects
  1. extinguish all life forms withing 200km radius
  2. further afield: transport, livestock power lines and water affected
  3. 40-50 km high cloud of ash
  4. equivalent to 1000 hiroshima bombs a second
  5. more rainfall - lahars. could cause 50,000 deaths
  6. 15cm ash within 1,000km: loss of homes / roof colapse and 1 in 3 people die.
  7. Ash reaches Europe in 5 days
2. longer term effects
  1. onset of glaciation - winter temps drop by 1-2.5 C
  2. fall in agricultural yield -
    1. increase in food prices
      1. famine
      2. conflict
  3. sulphurous cloak around world in 3 wks.
  4. drop of 12C in high latitudes - permanent snow.
  5. Tropics - drop of 15C / failure of monsoon. 40% world pop facing starvation

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Yellowstone supervolcano

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	Created by Alex Roll almost 7 years ago