Super Volcano Theory

Around 74,000 years ago, a super volcano eruption lead the earth into a volcanic winter which killed two thirds of the plants in the northern hemisphere, made thousands of species go extinct and reduced the human race to about 10,000. Changes in the earth in 2012 could irritate the already overdue to erupt Yellowstone super volcano, causing similar catastrophic events as the past.

The Science Behind It

Super volcanoes occur when magma from the earth’s core rises into the crust but is unable to erupt because it can’t break through to the surface. This causes massive amounts of pressure from incoming magma to build up over thousands of years till a stimulus like an earthquake cracks the crust open, releasing an explosion equal to 1,000 atomic bombs.

On top of devastating everything within a thousand kilometers of their explosions, super volcanoes expel hundreds of cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere, blocking out light from the sun and causing global cooling. Although the ash only remains in the atmosphere for a couple of months, the reflective sulfuric acid haze stays in the upper atmosphere for years causing a volcanic winter and then an ice age that lasts hundreds of years.

The last super volcano to erupt was Mount Toba, 74,000 years ago. The 2,500 cubic kilometers of ash it injected into the atmosphere was enough to cause an ice age that lasted 1,000 years, killing many plants and animals. These eruptions are worrisome because they have pushed man to extinction many times before. Fortunately they don’t happen very often.

Most of the forty super volcanoes on earth are extinct and thus don’t pose a major threat. Recently though, the Yellowstone Super Volcano has been classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as a “high-Threat” system after it started having many small earthquakes, indicating that there is magma movement below. This makes a lot of sense considering that all the ground surrounding Yellowstone has been rising three inches each year since 2004, which is a lot faster than it ever has before.

The majority of volcanologists say that these occurrences are nothing to worry about and that Yellowstone isn’t going to erupt any time soon. However, a small number geologists believe that these Yellowstone disruptions are warning signs of a major volcanic eruption. The timing sounds right considering that the Yellowstone super volcano erupts around every 600,000 years and it last erupted 640,000 years ago.

On top of Yellowstone being overdue to erupt, it’s also at the point where any stimulus could cause the massive pressure in the caldera to break through the surface and explode. As of now, there are an abundance of stimuli that people claim could cause Yellowstone to erupt.

Most of the stimuli that could disrupt Yellowstone is said to occur in 2012. Among these stimuli is the interstellar plasma from the galactic alignment, the suns energy from the solar storms, the magnetic fields from the pole reversal and an atom bomb from a nuclear war.

Should we worry

The damage caused by an eruption of this kind is catastrophic and considering that it will erupt again, regardless of when, should cause at least some concern.

Worst case scenario

Any one of the stimuli mentioned above, could aggravate Yellowstone in 2012, causing it to explode and kill millions of people. The sound of the explosion would be the loudest sound heard by man in 75,000 years. Ash could fall over United States killing millions of Americans and destroying crops everywhere.

The earth could then undergo a volcanic winter leading to enormous loss of lives due to famine and the reduction of temperature.  Afterwards, an ice age could begin that would last over 1,000 years causing the human population to reduce to about five percent.

Best case scenario

Yellowstone could be unaffected by stimuli for thousands of years.

Advice

Stay as far away from Yellowstone as possible. In case of a volcanic winter, Equatorial Africa would probably be the easiest place to live because the humans that survived the last volcanic winter took refuge in the small tropical places that were located in that area.