General Question

Ltryptophan's avatar

Do major volcanic eruptions have the force to eject debris into outer space?

Asked by Ltryptophan (12091points) August 21st, 2022 from iPhone

When a volcano erupts does it push any rock, or other material out into space?

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5 Answers

Brian1946's avatar

Offhand I’d say no.

I think the highest altitude any ejecta have reached is about 36 miles, which is only the second atmospheric layer, the stratosphere.

The ejecta would have to travel another 336 miles just to reach the exospheric floor.

An object is not in outer space until it leaves the exosphere, which would be about 6,200 miles above Earth.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html

kritiper's avatar

Possibly. Of course, without speed and direction to attain orbit, the debris would fall back to Earth.
On Aug. 27, 1883, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatau, a small island in Indonesia. Heard 3000 miles away, the explosion threw 5 cubic miles of Earth 50 miles into the sky, created 120 foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.
The volcano split by 6 feet to await the next eruption which will complete the split, sink ½ the island and create another huge tsunami.
(The International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 250 miles.)

flutherother's avatar

No, as material would have to be travelling at around 25,000 miles per hour to escape the Earth and the ejected material would immediately be slowed down due to friction. The ash cloud over Krakatoa climbed to a height of 50 miles due to heat and convection rather than the speed of ejection.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

Probably not without another source of acceleration. It would have to be one hell of an explosion. Projectiles from a volcano, like a gun just have an initial impulse. If this was a thing, we would likely have found historical evidence of it.

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