• Question: If there was a massive volcano that covered half of the world, if it erupted could it kill the whole world? well it wont happen because there isn't 2 plates that size

    Asked by HermioneBat to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      @HermioneBat actually there is a super volcano under Yellowstone Park in the United States, and if that erupts it could be pretty catastrophic. The lava would probably cover much of the park (which is huge) with rain-out throughout the united states of ash and pumice. Then a lot of debris will get caught up in the atmosphere so we would all be in darkness for a few years, and the chemistry of the atmosphere would be altered for at least 10 years. Add to that the chaos of no air-traffic etc, it would be pretty big news!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      A volcano that large would be pretty catastrophic – even smaller volcanoes can cause pretty severe messes. If you want a good example, look up the Deccan Traps – it was a series of massive volcanic eruptions that wound up covering a good fraction of what is now India in lava. That much lava also dumps out a bunch of ash, which hangs in the sky, and toxic gases. It didn’t destroy the world, but it was also not as big as half the planet. I think it’s pretty safe to say that if half the planet erupted, the other half of the planet would not be very happy about it.

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