EntranceHow does a volcano behave in America? The eruption of Mount Siax is one of the worst disasters in Canadian history.
There have been many predictions about the end of the world, and the largest volcano in America, Yellowstone, is often cited as one of the reasons for the global catastrophe. And yes, if it erupts, it can destroy the continent.
Yellowstone volcano
The caldera of the Yellowstone volcano is so gigantic that it houses national park(by the way, the same name). Its dimensions are approximately 55 kilometers by 72 kilometers. Moreover, its dimensions were determined recently: in 1960-1970. And this is not just a volcano, but a supervolcano. You can walk here without even suspecting that there is a volcano under your feet.
In reality, supervolcanoes are still quite difficult today; about 20 such formations are known to the world. It is quite possible that some of them have not yet been recognized, while others are considered ordinary extinct volcanoes that appeared in ring structures as a result of a cosmic body (asteroid, meteorite or comet) falling to Earth many millions of years ago.
Yellowstone is located in the so-called hot spot: under the caldera there is a huge bubble of magma, the depth of which, according to research, is about 8 thousand meters.
The temperature inside this giant bubble, according to scientists, exceeds 800 degrees. That is why there are a huge number of thermal springs in the park, as well as a valley of geysers. By the way, it is the largest in the world (there are five such valleys on the planet).
Today this volcano poses one of the greatest dangers to the Earth. From time to time, scientists make predictions in the media that an eruption may begin, which will become a real catastrophe for humanity.
The most dangerous magma bubble
In Yellowstone national park earthquakes are a regular occurrence. On average, they occur from 1000 to 2000 per year, however, they are very weak, and a person does not feel them. And many tourists come here to admire the amazing scenery.
In general, supervolcanoes represent the second largest catastrophic phenomenon. Scientists put the fall of an asteroid in the first place. In the history of the planet, eruptions of such volcanoes led to mass extinctions, as well as climate change, since the ash did not allow sunlight to penetrate the Earth and a long “volcanic winter” was established on the planet.
On average, Yellowstone volcano erupts approximately every 600 thousand years: the most recent one occurred 640 thousand years ago, before that - 1.3 million years ago, and even earlier - 2.1 million years ago, so a new catastrophe is looming. The likelihood of a new eruption in the near future is quite low, but there is a risk that constant earthquakes could provoke a new tragedy on the planet.
So, in 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8 occurred here (usually a magnitude of no more than 3), some researchers predicted further more powerful tremors and said that America had only a couple of weeks to live. And even then, animals began to run away from the park en masse, which caused additional unrest among the population. Watch the buffaloes run, you would probably get excited too.
True, the authorities then reassured citizens and said that this was normal migration due to the onset of cold weather.
What could be the consequences
Scientists predict that the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano will release approximately a thousand cubic kilometers of magma into environment. This is enough to kill everything within a 160 km radius and cover most of the continent with a layer of ash about 30 centimeters thick. The victims could be 100 thousand people, but it would also be a real disaster for the planet: volcanic ash would change the atmosphere and block sunlight for several years, maybe decades, and then the average annual temperature could drop by about 20 degrees.
By the way, in the disaster film “2012” the Yellowstone eruption occurs.
The almost inconspicuous Canadian Siax Cone hides among the pine forests of British Columbia, in the vast volcanic province of the Northern Cordillera. Little is known about him - even people living in the nearest populated areas, do not fully understand the full danger of this big volcano. However, one of the Syax eruptions ranked among the worst natural disasters in Canadian history and resulted in the deaths of 2,000 people.
Eruption of Syax between 1668 and 1714
The exact date of the Syax eruption has not been reliably established. It is believed that the disaster occurred between 1668 and 1714. Recently, scientists have suggested that the giant's activity was caused by a powerful earthquake in 1700. If this is indeed the case, then the potential for dormant volcanoes to reawaken would be another risk associated with megaquakes in the Pacific Northwest.
The young Siax cinder cone is one of the most accessible volcanic centers in British Columbia. It has a height of only 609 meters and is located 60 km from the Canadian city of Terrace, where about 11.5 thousand people live. The disaster began suddenly and resulted in a huge lava flow that flowed into the nearby Nass River and formed a lava lake. Subsequently, this flow swept 11 km to the north, filled a small flat valley with hot materials, and then covered a distance of another 10 km. In total, its length was 22.5 km. In some places you can still see the frozen remains of the stream, reaching a height of 12 meters.
At that time, in the Siax area there were villages of the indigenous Nisga'a Indian people. According to legends that have survived to this day, the giant’s eruption was characterized by a long period of destruction, during which two settlements were destroyed. To save their lives, many members of the tribe hid in earthen shelters, but died from suffocation from volcanic gas and toxic smoke. The total number of victims was about 2,000 people, with many remaining buried in their dugouts under a 12-meter lava flow. The Syax eruption was the only one in Canada whose legends were verified and confirmed by scientific research.
Current state of Siax
The cone is currently considered dormant, but gases escaping from the ground indicate that the volcano is active and potentially dangerous. If Syax wakes up again, its eruption could be a repeat of that disaster. According to volcanologists, the giant is capable of causing forest fires, poisoning residents of surrounding villages with gases and damming nearby reservoirs with hot lava. Once it reaches the River Naas, the flow could destroy an important salmon system.
Syax Crater
In the near future, Canadian experts plan to improve monitoring of Siax and study the gases it emits. In addition, a warning system will be developed for people living down the slopes and downwind of the cone.
When the whole of Europe was experiencing political catastrophes, in the United States the earth's surface began to tremble in the most literal sense - an earthquake occurred in a national park in the state of Wyoming, the strength of which was almost 5 points, and reports appeared in all media that the end of the world would soon come.
What happened in April of this year in a national park in a US state?
This spring, experts around the world began to sound the alarm that the Yellowstone volcano in America began to become active and awaken. The reason for this was several earth tremors, the strongest of which was 4.8 points, and a significant increase in water temperature in the geyser lakes. According to experts, this could cause catastrophic consequences, even the Apocalypse. So far, no end of the world has happened, although this volcano is waking up in America, but how long will this fairly calm life last? No one can even imagine this. In fact, people know no more about the processes that occur underground than about what is happening in the far ends of space, and perhaps when the Yellowstone volcano wakes up, we will all be in for an unpleasant surprise. As we have already said, we can only guess about this.
What volcano is waking up in America? What's special about the Yellowstone volcano?
It is located in Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park. The park itself is very beautiful, and in particular the photos of these places speak about this. The volcano is so huge that not everyone will even notice it up close. You may simply not understand that what you are looking at is the crater of a volcano. Essentially, this is a huge “bowl” in the mountains, which are located within the national park. If we talk scientific language, this “bowl” is called a caldera. It covers an area of 4 thousand square kilometers. For a more accurate idea, let’s say that the area of the “bowl” is one and a half areas of Moscow and two areas of Tokyo. At this time this is the most strong volcano of those operating on Earth. According to scientists, the force of the eruption of this volcano will be comparable to the force of the explosion of a thousand atomic bombs.
A volcano that just can't calm down
Scientists have also found that over the past 17 million years, with a periodicity of approximately 600 thousand years, this volcano has been awakening in America. During eruptions, gigantic amounts of ash and lava are thrown to the surface. The thickness of the caldera is only 400 meters, and on average on the planet its thickness is 40 kilometers. According to researchers, the last time the Yellowstone volcano erupted was 640 thousand years ago. So, perhaps soon we will be talking about the Yellowstone volcano waking up in America. And on Earth another large-scale catastrophe begins, as a result of which all living things die.
Will the world end when the Yellowstone volcano erupts?
Some researchers believe that the risk of disaster is very high. According to them, the force of the eruption will be comparable to the force of the cataclysm that occurred during the origin of life on Earth. Many thousands of cubic kilometers of lava will be poured into the United States. Those places where the lava does not reach will be covered with volcanic ash. All of North America will turn into an uninhabited desert.
Other countries, according to experts, cannot avoid disaster either, since the ash will rise into the earth’s atmosphere and cover the entire surface of our planet from the sun’s rays. It will be a very long night all over the Earth. It will be impossible to see anything even at arm's length.
On Earth, deprived of the sun's heat, winter will reign. Temperatures in different parts of the planet will drop to levels from -15 to -50 degrees. Plants will die, agricultural production will sharply decrease. People will begin to die from hunger and hypothermia. According to experts, 99% of the world's population will die, and the countdown to the beginning of these terrible days has already begun...
What signs indicate that an eruption is near?
It’s far from a fact that the experts are right and everything will end as badly as described just above. However, since the beginning of 2014, according to various sources, from 60 to 200 tremors have occurred in Yellowstone. The strongest of them was recorded on March 30, its power was, as already mentioned, 4.8 points. The temperature of many geyser lakes in the national park sharply increased by 20 degrees. This means that magma moves across the Earth's surface.
According to scientists, in the event of a volcano explosion in Yellowstone, a gigantic mass of magma, the size of which would be somewhere around 80 by 20 kilometers, could spill onto the ground. Perhaps the end of the world will not happen, and not so many people will die or even everyone will remain alive, but American economy significant impact may occur. It is possible that other countries will have to help the United States cope with the consequences of a disaster that could arise due to the awakening of the Yellowstone volcano in America.
What else could happen if the Yellowstone volcano explodes?
As is already clear, reports of the imminent end of the world after the earthquakes in Yellowstone are somewhat premature. It definitely won't start right now or anytime soon. However, it cannot be guaranteed that it will not happen at all. It is possible that a giant earthquake will occur in Yellowstone, which will also no doubt cause significant damage.
In general, one cannot say for sure about the possibility of an eruption and the consequences that will occur when the Yellowstone volcano wakes up; one can only guess. Perhaps ordinary people are not told everything and something is hidden from them. Nobody can say anything about this for sure. We only know that in the spring the American government did not evacuate people from areas close to Yellowstone National Park.
American scientists are alarmed to report that the Yellowstone volcano, the largest in the world, is active. This supergiant erupts every 600 thousand years, and each time it redraws the map of the continent. Is the volcano about to make itself known again?
One at a time, in pairs and in groups, bison flee Yellowstone National Park. Without being distracted by anything, even cars and people, the animals do not slow down. The video recording made by a bystander seriously alarmed the whole country. Many believed that the bison were not just running, but fleeing for their lives.
Local residents seriously thought about whether to run after the animals. After all, beneath Yellowstone National Park lies the largest volcano on the continent.
The size of the volcano is, of course, amazing. Four thousand square kilometers is 20 times larger than Washington with all its suburbs. The territory of the entire US capital is just a small part of the so-called “caldera” of the volcano, that is, the crater. And under it is a huge bubble filled with hot magma. Depth - like 15 Ostankino TV towers.
Recently, the super-volcano has been making itself known more and more often. The water temperature in the geyser lakes is now above normal, and the soil has risen. But the main thing is that since the beginning of this year, six dozen tremors have already occurred. Each time the vibrations become stronger.
“We had an earthquake of magnitude 4.8. This is the strongest tremors in more than 30 years,” says Al Nash, head of the press service for Yellowstone National Park.
Experts believe that the volcano can destroy life within a radius of one thousand kilometers, and the entire territory of North America will be under a 15-centimeter layer of ash. Global climate change will follow. Volcanologists believe that Yellowstone should erupt approximately once every 600 thousand years. 640 thousand have already passed since the last awakening.
“65 million years ago, the eruption of a similar super-volcano coincided with the fall of a meteorite in the Mexico region, and this, quite likely, was the double blow that caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. In the current situation, the United States will become extinct,” believes a university physics professor New York Michio Kaku.
Yellowstone National Park staff are trying to reassure the Americans, saying that the bison are driven by hunger and nothing more.
"We're seeing an exodus of bison, elk and other animals out of the national park. But we think it's a migration in search of food," says Al Nash.
But looking at the buffaloes running en masse, it’s hard not to remember the stories of the residents South-East Asia about how in December 2004, for no apparent reason, animals suddenly rushed inland. And soon a giant wave came, generated by an earthquake. About three hundred thousand people died then.
According to American volcanologists, the eruption of the largest volcano in the world, the Yellowstone Caldera, which is located in Yellowstone National Park, could lead to the Apocalypse.
The volcano has not erupted for about 600 thousand years and with its eruption it can destroy the territory of the United States, which could even begin a world catastrophe - the Apocalypse, as American scientists believe.
The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US state of Wyoming has begun to grow at a record rate since 2004 and will explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than several hundred volcanoes across the earth at the same time.
According to volcanologists, lava will rise high into the sky and ash will cover nearby areas with a layer of 15 meters and a distance of 5,000 kilometers.
In the early days, the US may become uninhabitable due to toxic air.
Experts predict that the volcanic eruption will be no less powerful than all three times the volcano has erupted over the past 2.1 million years.
Robert B. Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, noted that the magma came so close to the earth's crust in Yellowstone Park that it literally radiated heat that could not be explained by anything other than the impending eruption of a huge volcano.
July 22, 1980: Mount St. Helens in Washington definitely catches fire. The Yellowstone caldera volcano during an eruption can explode with a force a thousand times more powerful and cause many more casualties.
Yellowstone National Park is a bomb that could destroy the Earth.
Sometimes it seems that only God's punishment can stop the United States. For those who believe in evil rock looming over America, there is a very serious argument. In the very center of this country, in its most fertile corner, a natural disaster is brewing. Yellowstone National Park, known for its forests, grizzly bears and hot springs, is actually a bomb that will explode in the coming years. If this happens, the entire North American continent may perish. And the rest of the world will not find it enough. But the world won't end, don't worry.
All power to the council
And it all started with joy. In 2002, several new geysers with healing hot water appeared simultaneously in the Yellowstone Nature Reserve. Local tourism companies immediately began to promote this phenomenon, and the number of visitors to the park, which usually amounts to about three million people a year, increased even more.
However, strange things soon began to happen. In 2004, the US government tightened the regime for visiting the reserve. The number of security guards on its territory has sharply increased, and some areas have been declared closed to visitors. But seismologists and volcanologists frequented them.
They had worked in Yellowstone before, because the entire reserve with its unique nature is nothing more than a huge patch on the crater of an extinct supervolcano. Actually, this is where the hot geysers come from. On their way to the surface of the earth, they are heated by the magma rustling and gurgling under the earth's crust. All local sources were known back in the days when white colonizers recaptured Yellowstone from the Indians, and here you have three new ones! Why did it happen?
Scientists became worried. One after another, commissions to study volcanic activity began to visit the park. What they dug there was not reported to the general public, but it is known that in 2007, under the Office of the President of the United States, a Scientific Council was created, empowered emergency powers. It included several leading geophysicists and seismologists of the country, as well as members of the Council national security, including the Secretary of Defense and intelligence officials.
The end has crept up unnoticed
And the whole point is that the ancient and, as it was believed, safe supervolcano, on which the Paradise Valley is located, suddenly showed signs of activity. The miraculously clogged springs became its first manifestation.
Further more. Seismologists discovered a sharp rise in soil under the reserve. Over the past four years, she has swollen by 178 centimeters. This is despite the fact that over the previous twenty years the ground rise was no more than 10 centimeters.
Seismologists were joined by mathematicians. Based on information about previous eruptions of the Yellowstone volcano, they developed an algorithm for its life activity. The result was shocking. The fact that the intervals between eruptions are constantly decreasing was known to scientists before.
However, given the astronomical duration of such intervals, this information is of no use practical significance for humanity did not have. Well, in fact, the volcano erupted 2 million years ago, then 1.3 million years ago and the last time 630 thousand years ago.
The Geological Society of America expected his awakening no earlier than 20 thousand years later. But based on new data, computers produced an unexpected result. The next catastrophe should be expected in 2075. However, after some time it became clear that events were developing much faster. The result had to be adjusted again.
The terrible date has approached. Now it looms between 2012 and 2016, with the first figure looking the most likely.
It would seem, just think, an eruption, especially since it was known in advance. Well, the Americans will evacuate the population from a dangerous area, and then they will spend money on restoring the destroyed infrastructure...
Alas, only those who are not familiar with supervolcanoes can argue this way.
Worse than a nuclear war
A typical volcano, as we imagine it, is a cone-shaped hill with a crater from which lava, ash and gases erupt. It is formed like this.
Deep in the bowels of our planet, magma is constantly boiling, which from time to time bursts upward through cracks, faults and other “defects” in the earth’s crust. As the magma rises, it releases gases, becoming volcanic lava, and flows out through the top of a fissure, commonly called a vent. Solidifying around the vent, the products of the eruption build up the cone of the volcano.
Supervolcanoes have a feature that, until recently, no one even suspected of their existence. They are not at all similar to the cone-shaped “caps” with a vent inside that are familiar to us. These are vast areas of thinned earth's crust, under which hot magma pulsates. A simple volcano looks like a pimple, a supervolcano looks like a huge inflammation. Several ordinary volcanoes may be located on the territory of a supervolcano. They may erupt from time to time, but these emissions can be compared to the release of steam from an overheated boiler. But imagine that the boiler itself will explode! After all, supervolcanoes do not erupt, but explode.
What do these explosions look like?
From below, the pressure of magma on the thin surface of the earth gradually increases. A hump is formed with a height of several hundred meters and a diameter of 15-20 kilometers. Numerous vents and cracks appear along the perimeter of the hump, and then its entire central part collapses down into the fiery abyss.
The collapsed rocks, like a piston, sharply squeeze out gigantic fountains of lava and ash from the depths.
The force of this explosion exceeds the charge of the most powerful nuclear bomb. According to geophysicists, if the Yellowstone mine explodes, the effect will exceed a hundred Hiroshimas. The calculations, of course, are purely theoretical. During its existence, homo sapiens has never encountered such a phenomenon. Last time boomed in the time of the dinosaurs. Perhaps this is why they became extinct.
As it will be
A few days before the explosion Earth's crust above the supervolcano will rise several meters. At the same time, the soil will heat up to 60-70 degrees. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide and helium in the atmosphere will increase sharply.
The first thing we will see is a cloud of volcanic ash, which will rise into the atmosphere to a height of 40-50 kilometers.
the pieces will be thrown to great heights. As they fall, they will cover a gigantic area. In the first hours of a new eruption in Yellowstone, an area within a radius of 1000 kilometers around the epicenter will be destroyed. Here, residents of almost the entire American northwest (Seattle) and parts of Canada (Calgary, Vancouver) are in immediate danger.
Streams of hot mud will rage over an area of 10 thousand square kilometers, the so-called pyroclastic wave - the deadliest product of the eruption. They will arise when the pressure of lava shooting high into the atmosphere weakens and part of the column collapses on the surrounding area in a huge avalanche, burning everything in its path. It will be impossible to survive in pyroclastic flows of such magnitude. At temperatures above 400 degrees, human bodies will simply cook, the flesh will separate from the bones.
The hot slurry will kill about 200 thousand people in the first minutes after the eruption begins.
But these are very minor losses compared to those that America will suffer as a result of a series of earthquakes and tsunamis that the explosion will provoke. They will already claim tens of millions of lives. This is provided that the North American continent does not go under water at all, like Atlantis.
Then the ash cloud from the volcano will begin to spread wider. Within 24 hours, the entire territory of the United States up to the Mississippi will be in the disaster zone. Volcanic ash only sounds harmless, but in fact it is the most dangerous phenomenon during an eruption. Ash particles are so small that neither gauze bandages nor respirators protect against them. Once in the lungs, the ash mixes with mucus, hardens and turns into cement....
Territories located thousands of kilometers from the volcano may be most at risk. When the layer of volcanic ash reaches a thickness of 15 centimeters, the load on the roofs will become too great and buildings will begin to collapse. It is estimated that between one and fifty people in each home will be killed or seriously injured. This will be the main cause of death in the areas around Yellowstone bypassed by the pyroclastic wave, where the ash layer will be no less than 60 centimeters.
Other deaths will follow from poisoning. After all, the precipitation will be extremely toxic. To cross the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, the clouds of ash and ash will take two to three weeks, and after a month they will cover the Sun across the entire Earth.
Frost the Voivode
Soviet scientists once predicted that the most terrible consequence of global nuclear conflict there will be a so-called “nuclear winter”. The same thing will happen as a result of the explosion of a supervolcano.
Two weeks after the sun disappears into dust clouds, the air temperature will be earth's surface will fall in different areas globe from -15 degrees to -50 degrees or more. The average temperature on the Earth's surface will be about -25 degrees.
Winter will last for at least a year and a half. This is enough to forever change the natural balance on the planet. Due to long frosts and lack of light, vegetation will die. Since plants are involved in the production of oxygen, very soon it will become difficult for everyone living on the planet to breathe. Animal world The earth will die painfully from cold, hunger and epidemics. The human race will have to move from the surface of the earth underground for at least three years, and then who knows...
But, in general, this sad forecast mainly concerns residents of the Western Hemisphere. Residents of other parts of the world, including Russians, have a much higher chance of survival. And the consequences will apparently not be so catastrophic. But for the population of North America, the chances of survival are minimal.
Save yourself who can!
But if the American authorities are aware of the problem, why are they not doing anything to prevent it? Why hasn’t information about the upcoming catastrophe reached the general public yet?
The first question is not difficult to answer: neither the States themselves nor humanity as a whole can prevent the impending explosion. Therefore, the White House is preparing for the worst-case scenario. According to analysts from the CIA, “as a result of the disaster, two-thirds of the population will die, the economy will be destroyed, transport and communications will be disorganized. In the context of an almost complete cessation of supplies, the military potential remaining at our disposal will decrease to a level sufficient only to maintain order in the country.”
As for notifying the population, the authorities recognized such actions as inappropriate. Well, in fact, it is possible to escape from a sinking ship, and even then not always. Where to run from the broken and burning continent?
The US population is now approaching the three hundred million mark. In principle, there is nowhere to put this biomass, especially since after the disaster there will be no safe places left on the planet. Every state will have big problems, and no one will want to aggravate them by accepting millions of refugees.
In any case, this is the conclusion reached by the Scientific Council under the President of the United States. According to its members, there is only one way out - to abandon the majority of the population to the will of fate and take care of preserving capital, military potential and the elite of American society. So, a few months before the explosion, the best scientists, military personnel, and specialists in high technology, and, of course, the rich. There is no doubt that every billionaire has a place reserved on the future ark. But you can no longer guarantee the fate of ordinary millionaires. They will save themselves.
God bless Liberia
Actually, the above information became known thanks to the efforts of the American scientist and journalist Howard Huxley, who has been working on the problems of the Yellowstone volcano since the 80s, has established connections in geophysics circles, like many famous journalists was associated with the CIA and is a recognized authority in scientific circles.
Realizing what the country was heading for, Howard and his like-minded people created the Foundation for Saving Civilization. Their goal is to warn humanity about the impending disaster and give everyone a chance to survive, not just members of the elite.
Over the course of several years, Foundation employees have accumulated a wealth of information. In particular, they calculated exactly where the cream of American society would go after the disaster.
Liberia, a small state in West Africa, traditionally following in the wake of American politics, will become an island of salvation for them. There have been massive injections of money into this country for several years now. There is a network of excellent roads, airports and, as they say, an extensive system of deep, very well-maintained bunkers. The American elite will be able to sit in this hole for several years, and then, when the situation stabilizes, begin to restore the destroyed state and its influence in the world.
In the meantime, there are still a few years left, The White house and the Scientific Council are trying to solve pressing military problems. There is no doubt that the coming catastrophe will be perceived by most religious people as God's punishment for America. Surely many Islamic states will want to finish off “shaitan” while he licks his wounds. You can't think of a better reason for jihad.
Therefore, since 2003, preemptive strikes have been carried out on a number of Muslim countries with the aim of destroying their military potential.
A vicious circle has formed. Due to the aggressive policy, the United States has more and more ill-wishers, and less and less time remains to neutralize them
The end of the world will begin in the USA
The Yellowstone supervolcano, the explosion of which will destroy all of North America and doom half the world to slow death, is beginning to awaken.
There is still a danger of the destruction of our entire civilization, many scientists admit. The fact is that the inevitable processes within our planet, occurring before our eyes, are recognized by experts as a global threat that can wipe out entire continents from the face of the Earth. Seismologists say that the Yellowstone Caldera is the most destructive force on our planet.
One of the last eruptions of this magnitude occurred in Sumatra 73 thousand years ago, when the explosion of the Toba supervolcano reduced the Earth's population by about 15 times. Then only 5-10 thousand people survived. The number of animals decreased by the same amount, three quarters died flora Northern Hemisphere. At the site of that explosion, a pit with an area of 1775 square meters was formed. km, which could fit two New Yorks or Londons.
Against this background, it is difficult to imagine what could happen if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, which is twice the size of Toba! “A supervolcano eruption dwarfs all others, and its power is a real threat to everyone living on this planet,” said Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysics and climate change expert at University College London.
THE STATES LIVE ON A POWDER KEG
What is this ticking time bomb in the northwestern United States? A supervolcano is not a cone-shaped formation with a vent, like ordinary volcanoes. In appearance it is a lowland, called a caldera by volcanologists, which resembles a huge depression. This unremarkable hollow is a gigantic volcano with an eruption area of several thousand square kilometers. By the way, due to its gigantic size, scientists initially did not even recognize the caldera in Yellowstone Park in the USA. Satellite photos showed that the entire park covers an area of 3,825 square kilometers and is a caldera measuring about 55 km by 72 km.
The outside of Yellowstone Nature Reserve is covered in picturesque landscapes, but inside this huge valley is filled with hot magma. Over thousands of years, magma filled huge underground reservoirs, melting rock, becoming so dense that volcanic gases, which cause eruptions in ordinary volcanoes, cannot pass through it. Therefore, a huge amount of molten magma presses from below onto the surface of the Earth. This continues for hundreds of thousands of years until the abscess breaks and a terrible explosion occurs.
With such crushing power at their fingertips, US authorities have set scientists the task of calculating the date of the next supervolcano eruption. According to scientists, the period between supervolcano explosions is approximately 600 thousand years. Given this periodicity, the next cataclysm will fall in our century. At first, researchers talked about 2075, but in the summer of 2003, strange things began to happen in Yellowstone Park. The temperature of the soil rose to the boiling point, cracks opened, through which hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide– volcanic gases contained in magma. These signs gave scientists reason to believe that magma had escaped from the chamber and was approaching the surface at a speed that had increased several times. In this regard, the date of the expected volcanic eruption was shifted by almost 50 years. “Over the past two million years, Yellowstone has had three super-powerful eruptions, and each of them turned half the continent into desert,” says Robert Smith, a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. “While the magma of the supervolcano (although it has risen by 8 cm per year since 2004) is located at a depth of 10 kilometers from its vent, it’s too early to worry, but if it rises to a level of 2-3 km, we will have serious reasons for concern.”
But there are reasons for concern. Back in 2002, three new geysers appeared near the old caldera in Yellowstone, which are one of the manifestations of the later stages of volcanism. For four last year the soil rose almost 180 cm, which is 45 times higher than the previous four years.
AS IT WILL BE
If an explosion occurs, then, according to scientists, the picture will be worse than the description of the Apocalypse. It all starts with a sharp rise and overheating of the earth in Yellowstone Park. And when enormous pressure breaks through the caldera, thousands of cubic kilometers of lava will pour out of the resulting vent, which will resemble a huge pillar of fire. The explosion will be accompanied powerful earthquake and lava flows reaching speeds of several hundred kilometers per hour.
The eruption will continue for several days, but people and animals will mostly die not from ash or lava, but due to suffocation and hydrogen sulfide poisoning. During this time, the air in the entire western United States will be poisoned so that a person will be able to survive for no more than 5-7 minutes. A thick layer of ash will cover almost the entire US territory - from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, which will be wiped off the face of the Earth, to Iowa and the Gulf of Mexico. The ozone hole over the mainland will grow to such a size that the level of radiation will approach Chernobyl. All of North America will turn into scorched earth. Southern Canada will also be seriously affected. Scientists do not deny that the Yellowstone giant will provoke the eruption of several hundred ordinary volcanoes around the world. At the same time, eruptions of ocean volcanoes will generate many tsunamis that will flood the coasts and all island states. The long-term consequences will be no less terrible than the eruption itself. And if the United States bears the brunt, the effect will be felt by the whole world.
Thousands of cubic kilometers of ash thrown into the atmosphere will block out sunlight and the world will be plunged into darkness. This will cause a sharp drop in temperature, for example, in Canada and Norway the thermometer will drop by 15-20oC in a couple of days. If the temperature drops by 21 degrees, as during the last eruption of the Toba supervolcano, all territories up to the 50th parallel - Norway, Finland or Sweden - will turn into Antarctica. A “nuclear winter” will come, which will last about four years. Incessant acid rain will destroy all crops and crops, kill livestock, dooming the surviving people to starvation. The “billionaire” countries - India and China - will suffer the most from hunger. Here, up to 1.5 billion people will die from starvation in the coming months after the explosion. In total, in the first months of the cataclysm, every third inhabitant of the Earth will die. The only region that can survive is the central part of Eurasia. Most people, according to scientists, will survive in Siberia and the Eastern European part of Russia, located on earthquake-resistant platforms, remote from the epicenter of the explosion and protected from the tsunami.
ONLY NUMBERS
According to the British broadcasting corporation BBC, while ordinary volcanoes kill thousands of people and destroy entire cities, supervolcanoes claim billions of lives and devastate continents.
2,500 times more powerful than Mount Etna's last eruption, Yellowstone is expected to explode.
The Yellowstone caldera will emit 15 times more ash than the Krakatoa volcano, which killed 36 thousand people.
Visibility will decrease to 20-30 cm due to the resulting ash curtain.
Tokyo is the most Big city in the world - will fit into the caldera formed after the explosion of the Yellowstone volcano.
1200 km is the radius of total destruction of all living things in the first minutes after the start of the eruption.
10,000 atomic bombs exploding simultaneously - such is the force of the Yellowstone volcano eruption.
1 in 100,000 earthlings will survive the Yellowstone disaster.
EXPERT OPINION
Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, leading employee of IGEM RAS Anatoly KHRENOV:
Any volcano is unpredictable, and not a single scientist or seismograph can accurately predict when to expect an eruption and with what force. So the consequences of an explosion can be many times greater than the expected effect. The Yellowstone giant is going to cause trouble. First of all, the volcanic eruption will cover the States, on whose territory Yellowstone Park is located - Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Power plants and other life support systems may fail; the northwestern United States will be isolated due to a disruption in transport communications. And that's the best case scenario. At worst, the scale of the disaster is even difficult to imagine... The super eruption in Yellowstone will affect almost the entire US territory. The first zone adjacent to the volcano will suffer from pyroclastic flows. This avalanche, consisting of hot gas and ash, spreading at the speed of sound, will destroy all life within a radius of 100 km. 10 thousand sq. km will turn into scorched earth. No one will survive in a pyroclastic zone. The next zone is the entire United States, whose territory will be covered in ash. People won't be able to breathe. With an ash layer of 15 cm, the load on the roofs will be so strong that buildings will begin to fold like houses of cards. Hundreds of thousands of people will die either from suffocation or from the collapse of buildings. In a few days, the ash will spread throughout the United States and even cover Europe.
The American supervolcano will destroy the world.
Seismic activity on Earth is increasing, even in tectonically stable areas. AND main danger According to scientists, they represent so-called supervolcanoes. There are few such volcanoes and they erupt rarely. One of them is in American Yellowstone. If he comes to life, he will destroy not only America, but also half the world. We talked in more detail about supervolcanoes with Pavel Plechov, professor of the Department of Petrology, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University.
He said that supervolcanoes differ from ordinary ones primarily in the volume of eruptions. “It is believed that the supervolcano has an eruption force of 8. This means that the volume exceeds 1000 cubic kilometers,” the scientist noted. As a rule, these are not mountains, but depressions. Even if the supervolcano was once a mountain, then after a large eruption and Carrying out material for many hundreds of kilometers around, a depression formed in place of the mountain.Today, there are 20-30 supervolcanoes known in the world.
Does the eruption of such a volcano threaten to destroy all life on Earth? "Every living thing on our planet is many millions of years old. We see that, indeed, with such major eruptions changes in life are associated, the extinction of some species, the emergence of others, but not the death of all,” the professor noted.
As for Yellowstone, according to the scientist, there are three very large eruptions of this volcano. “The earliest was 2.1 million years ago, the next was about 1.2 million years ago, the last very large one was 640 thousand years ago. We can determine the periodicity - 600 thousand years. And in terms of time, the next eruption may now be preparing,” said Pavel Plechov. Meanwhile, according to him, nothing threatens us yet. “At least, tomorrow it will not explode,” the professor assured.
Speaking about our country, the scientist noted that in 2007 a large depression was discovered near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. It is somewhat smaller than Yellowstone and there is little data about it yet. Pavel Plechov also did not confirm the information that the supervolcano is located at the bottom of Lake Baikal. “Baikal is a tectonic crack, it has nothing to do with supervolcanoes. Perhaps in the future, when Baikal continues to develop, volcanoes may form at its bottom. So far, all manifestations of volcanism on the territory of Baikal are minimal”
Well, watch a very informative film about this volcano in the United States:
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