Monday, January 03, 2005

Supervolcanoes

I'm not even sure where to start in talking about this... but I think a quote should explain everything.

The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. Ten thousand times bigger than Mt St Helens, it created a global catastrophe dramatically affecting life on Earth. Scientists know that another one is due - they just don't know when... or where.

It is little known that lying underneath one of America's areas of outstanding natural beauty - Yellowstone Park - is one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world. Scientists have revealed that it has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago... so the next is overdue.


That is enough to make your head spin. I don't think I want to contemplate it anymore.

Link via Matthew Yglesias.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home