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Should we fear supervolcanoes more than we fear meteorite impacts?

Asked by mattbrowne (31732points) May 1st, 2009

From Wikipedia:

A supervolcano can create a volcanic eruption which is substantially larger than any volcano in historic times (generally accepted to be greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers). Although there are only a handful of supervolcanoes, super volcanic eruptions typically cover huge areas with lava and volcanic ash and cause a long-lasting change to weather (such as the triggering of a small ice age) sufficient to threaten the extinction of species.

The Yellowstone Caldera is the volcanic caldera in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. After a BBC television science program coined the term supervolcano in 2005, it has often been referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano which is the volcanic field produced by the latest three supereruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot. The three super eruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 640,000 years ago.

Lake Toba is a lake and supervolcano in Indonesia, 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide. It’s the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred 75,000 years before the present, a massive climate-changing event. The eruption is believed to have a Volcanic Explosivity Index intensity of 8 (on a scale of 1 to 8). This eruption, believed to have been the largest anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years, may have had global catastrophic consequences; some scientists believe that this eruption may have wiped out much of humanity and may have created a population bottleneck that affected the genetic inheritance of all human survivors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index

Is the next supereruption in Yellowstone overdue? Have we found all supervolcanoes on Earth? Do we pay enough attention to other supervolcanoes like Taupo in New Zealand? What about large calderas in Japan and Alaska? Are scientists too focused asteroids and comets? Should Hollywood explore topics beyond the scenarios as shown in movies like ‘Deep Impact’ and ‘Armageddon’?

Any opinions?

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