Right now, as you are watching this video, about 20 volcanos are
erupting around the world.
And while some of their summits have been continuously spitting out clouds of ash for
months at a time, others have just woken up.
You might not have known about these volcanic statistics
before the video began.
But imagine if such a horrifying sight - a freshly
erupting volcano - appeared out your window right now, under your very
eyes!
You would probably need to run away as far as possible to get
away from the hot spewing lava and the deadly pyroclastic cloud.
But - indeed - one day, there may be nowhere to
run away to.
Scientists count a total of 1532 volcanoes on the surface of the Earth...at
least at the moment.
Fortunately, during the entire period of human existence, only 600 of
them have ever been active.
160 volcanos erupt about once every decade, with about 50 more erupting annually.
Thankfully, most of them are fairly small volcanoes, relatively speaking,
and don’t do much damage or cause any harm.
But, if one of the most formidable and awe- inspiring of these “mountains of fire”
for some reason decided to run at its full capacity...believe it or not, the
whole planet could find itself in trouble.
Among these Earth-threatening mega-sized volcanoes is one called
Mount Merapi - or Gunung Merapi in Indonesian - which literally means
Fire mountain.
Located in the central part of the Island of Java,
this most active volcano in all Indonesia has a height of 1.8 miles - or about
3 kilometers.
This ticking time bomb - though not erupting at the moment
- continues to emit smoke all day, every day, reminding the nearby
settlements of its existence and destructive power.
Every few years this fire mountain turns into an erupting hell, damaging or destroying
nearby cities and towns.
Another one of these potentially Earth destroying uber-volcanoes is
situated on the other side of the globe, in the central part of the North
American continent, and is known as the Yellowstone Supervolcano.
This huge mega- volcano has erupted only 3 times in all of
history, the last time being about 630,000 years ago.
And each time it did erupt, it caused massive, world-altering cataclysms.
Mountain ranges were destroyed, the Earth itself rose.
Over the eons the summit collapsed and created a giant pit in
the Earth, a super crater now known as the Yellowstone Caldera.
It width varies from between 30 to 45 miles - that’s
50 to 70 km.
That’s one big volcano.
In more recent history, America’s first national park -
Yellowstone - was establish encompassing the entire beautiful and
breathtaking area.
It is certainly the most famous national park in the
USA, and is well known throughout the world.
Both the park and the volcano take their name from the Yellowstone
River, whose headwaters are within the confines of the park.
But even today, the at-the-moment dormant Yellowstone Supervolcano continues
to pose an enormous threat to mankind.
In the case of an eruption, the USA would be utterly
devastated, with a good half of the American states getting buried in ash,
and multiple knock-on effects devastating much of the world’s
ecosystems and economies.
People who enjoy traveling and moving to new cities and locales will be
more than happy to settle near Mount Vesuvius located in the Gulf of
Naples.This is because each of Vesuvius’ eruptions guarantees
instant emigration to another city.
At present, Vesuvius is said to be sleeping...but don’t let
that fool you... it is also still considered to be one of the most dangerous
volcanos in the world, as more than 3 million people live nearby.
But as it is sleeping, the title of “city destroyer”
must pass to Nyiragongo, at least for the moment.
Mount Nyiragongo is a still active “fire mountain”, or volcano, on the
African continent, in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Mount Nyiragongo has erupted 34 times since 1882, with activity
continuing for months, and even sometimes years.
This volcano is remarkable in that its crater contains an
active lava lake.
In 1977, part of the crater collapsed and the hot lava inside
burst out, with the fiery stream moving at speeds of up to 62 miles
or 100 km an hour, devouring, incinerating, and destroying everything
in its path.
The crater
filled again soon after, but scientists and engineers have so far managed
to prevent a new lava spill.
Alas, it may be deadly dangerous...but still, the lava lake on the top of Mount Nyiragongo
looks so beautiful and picturesque, you might believe that Frodo
should have brought the One Ring here…
But if one super-volcanic awakening can bring world-wide catastrophe...
what might happen if all the volcanoes on our lovely planet all erupted
simultaneously?
A synchronized volcanic doomsday event such as we are imagining
would lead to such terrible consequences that even multiple nuclear
explosions might not match it.
The concomitant earthquakes and lava flows would already obviously cause tremendous
damage, but they are nothing compared to the twin threats of: ash,
and volcanic gases.
Under such a scenario, a layer of ash will rise into the atmosphere and
almost completely block any sunlight from reaching the Earth.
Good news for sellers of flashlights and light
bulbs, pretty awful news for everyone else.
This darkness will last for 10 years, which means no
photosynthesis, the death of all plants, and temperature decreasing to a
critical level.
Of course, not all volcanoes clog up the atmosphere.
The ones in Hawaii are a good example...they just
spew small streams of lava.
However, the most active, largest, and most powerful of these
volcanoes will cover entire continents with ash in a matter of hours.
But, as we have learned in modern times how to disperse clouds
somewhat, you might think we could manage to do something about
these ash clouds as well.
And we might... but is there anything we could possibly do about the volcanic gases?
These gases are a death filled cocktail of hydrochloric acid,
hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide.
Shake well, add water - and you get an acid rain that
pollutes all of our groundwater, as well as the surface of all of our
oceans.
Changes in the composition of the water will lead to the death of
corals and mollusks, and after that, species after species will fall in a
domino effect, with eventually the entire food chain likely disappearing.
You might think the chance of something like this happening is
vanishingly small...and it is very unlikely.
But not impossible.
A comparative analysis of ancient sedimentary
rock formations revealed that the mass disappearance of prehistoric
fauna was caused by multiple volcanic eruptions.
Fortunately, volcanologists from Redford University in
Virginia have determined that - in our time - such a development is truly
quite unlikely.
But if it does happen, there will be almost no one to
assess the damage.
Everyone left will just be trying their best to survive
the apocalyptic end times.
However, even a single, solitary eruption can adversely affect the
atmosphere.
A recent example is the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines,
which erupted in 1991.
One of the strongest explosions on Earth over the last century, it led to a decrease in
temperature of 1° F - or about 0.6° C - and caused the ozone hole over Antarctica
in the Southern Hemisphere to increase to unprecedented size.
Thankfully - so far - nothing indicates that this kind of catastrophe
is going to happen again any time soon, but don’t sigh with relief
and kick your feet up just yet.
The fact is that our land-based volcanos are just a small percentage of
the total number of volcanos on our dear planet... scientists believe that
about 80% of all volcanic eruptions happen under our oceans, most of
them thousands of feet deep, and very difficult to spot.
Recently though, geophysicists from the University of Texas
discovered a super-duper- uber-volcano at the bottom of the Pacific
Ocean, in theory capable of turning our entire surface world into one
big Pompeii.
This volcano is located at a distance of 932 miles or 1500 kilometers
from the east coast of Japan.
If we look at the area ​​the object covers, we
can rightfully call it the largest volcano on the surface of our planet, and
indeed in the entire solar system: the diameter of the crater reaches and
astounding 388 miles, or 625 kilometers, and its area covers a mind-
bogglingly massive 100,386 square miles, or 160,000 sq. km.
This monster volcano goes by the moniker “the Tamu Massif”, and volcanologists
say that it “fell asleep” more than 140 million years ago.
Thank goodness it has not shown any proclivity towards waking
from its slumber since.
It’s unknown when the volcano might one day awaken once more...but
one thing is clear: if Tamu’s “sleep” comes to an end, the best solution
will be for us all to find another planet to live on.
Fortunately for us, mankind has recently been considering Mars as a
kind of second home...a potential refuge for all of us in the case of world
ending earthly catastrophes, and that includes volcanoes.
But there is one little problem...or rather I should say
“big” problem.
The tallest volcano in the entire Solar System is called
Olympus Mons, and it just so happens to be located on - yes, you guessed
it - the Red Planet.
This giant has a height of more than 16 miles - or
26 kilometers - with its diameter stretching for 335 miles (or 540
kilometers).
Hypothetically, conquering the summit of Olympus Mons shouldn’t
be all that difficult, due to is gently sloping sides.
Mountain climbers of the future are going to be a little disappointed.
But I would advise they take a pair of skis or a
snowboard...the descent is gonna be hella awesome.
Olympus Mons - is a
volcano that formed under conditions somewhat like that of a melting
candle.
Lava streams flowed down the slopes and froze there, over and
over again, continually increasing the total area of ​​the massif.
Analysis of images from the USA’s Mars rover showed
that the peak of the fiery mountain’s activity occurred between 20
and 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth!
However, the most recent traces of activity on the mountain are only about
2 million years old.
This means that Olympus Mons may not be extinct, but
is rather a sleeping volcano!
And if it awakens once more from its slumber, it will be an historical
event in our solar system...
To understand just how truly massive Olympus Mons really is, let’s move
it to the surface of the Earth to compare it to some Earth landmarks.
The area it covers is comparable to that of all
of the British Isles.
Or looked at another way, just its shadow would completely
engulf Mount Everest,
and in true size it leaves Everest in the dust, making our tallest Earth
mountain look like some kind of tiny little bump on the horizon.
Olympus Mons is so big that - standing at the top looking
down - all you can see is the smooth slope disappearing beyond the
curve of the horizon.
It’s literally impossible to view it all from the planet
itself.
The entire massif can be only seen from orbit.
So, if you want to leave a message for some spacefarers, the
slopes of this volcano are an ideal place to leave it.
At least until some new lava flows cover it up.
Nonetheless, it’s still too early to worry about another eruption.
Unlike the Earth, Mars has no tectonic plates.
This means that Olympus could slumber away for a very long time.
But if an eruption does happen one day, and you are living there...it will literally
overshadow the Sun.
If Mars turns out to be more inhospitable that we
imagined, scientists will have to think hard and long about a Plan B. What
do you think?
Where could humanity move to?
Or if we don’t move, how might we adapt to the
consequences of such a catastrophe?
Please leave your theories in the comments below!
If this video gets a lot of likes, and we get a lot of
comments about potential places for people to inhabit in the Universe,
we will devote one of our future episodes to this topic!
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