Supervolcano!

A supervolcano or super volcanic eruption is defined as a volcano that ejects more than a trillion tons of material when it erupts. It is possible for a supervolcano to cover an entire continent in ash. It is estimated that the last time a supervolcano erupted was 71,000 years ago at Toba in Sumatra.
Another known supervolcano is located right under Yellowstone National Park in the USA. The volcano is so big it is visible from space. This supervolcano erupts approximately every 600,000 years although it has now been 630,000 years since it last erupted! This volcano is known as The Yellowstone Caldera. The volcano is measured 55km by 72km. In the past 17 million years Yellowstone has had successive eruptions which has flooded places like Washington, California and Oregon in lava.

Geologists and volcanologists are monitoring the Yellowstone Caldera very carefully as the Supervolcano could erupt soon(in the next few hundred years) although such eruptions are not regular or predictable. An eruption from this Supervolcano would most certainly kill millions of people.

The picture in the top right corner shows the rim of the Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone National Park, USA.

Volcanology

Volcanology is the study of volcanoes and everything to do with volcanoes e.g lava and magma. The person who studies volcanoes is called a volcanologist. These people often have to visit volcanoes, most of the time active ones to study volcanic eruptions and will do things like collect eruptive products e.g ash, rock or lava samples. The picture shown at the top shows a volcanologist at work!
The earliest known evidence of volcanology is a wall painting of a volcano erupting dating back from 6,000BC in Turkey. Since then volcanology has advanced hugely.
The goal of volcanology is to understand why and how volcanoes erupt, how to predict eruptions and how the eruptions of volcanoes affect the lives of humans. These goals will affect the lives of humans in the future.

(The picture at the top shows a volcanologist at work)

Mount Vesuvius Eruption.

Mount Vesuvius first erupted in 79AD, when i t destroyed the city of Pompeii Rome, killing 2,000 people approximately. Since then the volcano has erupted 50 times. After Mount Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii it went on to erupt every 100 years until 1037AD when it became dormant for 6oo years. Some other eruptions include one in 1631, destroying 5 towns and killing 3,000 people. It also erupted in 1906 and this time it lasted an astonishing 10 days and killing 2,000 people. Since then it has had smaller eruptions in 1913, 1926, 1929 and 1944.



Since all of these eruptions many things have been found at in the ruins of ancient towns and cities and the surrounding area of Mt. Vesuvius. Some findings include perfectly preserved bodies, a dog and many drinking chalices.

Here's a video:

This video shows Mount Vesuvius erupting many years ago.

Introduction to Volcanoes

This Blog is dedicated to volcanoes.

A volcano is an opening in the earth's surface, which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface. Volcanic activity involves the pushing out of rock which usually forms mountains.

The heat at the earth's core or center causes bubbles of carbon dioxide in magma to get bigger and expand. This expanding gas pushes magma into the vent of a volcano and up to the surface of the Earth. When a volcano erupts or overflows from the top of the vent hot lava flows over its sides. Gas and ashes sometimes accompany the flow of lava.