The Danger of Catastrophic Supervolcano Eruptions is Ever-present

Curtin researchers are part of an international research group that examined an ancient supervolcano in Indonesia and discovered that such volcanoes continue to be active and dangerous for hundreds of years after a super-eruption, motivating the need for a rethink of exactly how these possibly devastating events are forecasted.

Associate Professor Martin Danišík, the lead Australian writer from the John de Laeter Centre based at Curtin University, said supervolcanoes usually erupted several times with intermissions of tens of thousands of years between the significant eruptions. Still, it was not known what happened during the dormant periods.

“Understanding those prolonged dormant periods will certainly define what we seek in young active supervolcanoes to aid us to forecast future eruptions,” Affiliate Teacher Danišík said.

” Super-eruptions are among the most disastrous events in Earth’s history, venting incredible amounts of magma nearly instantly. They can influence the global climate to the point of tipping the Earth right into a ‘volcanic winter,’ which is an uncommonly cold period that might lead to widespread starvation and population disruption.

” Knowing just how supervolcanoes function is essential for understanding the future threat of an unpreventable super-eruption, which happen approximately every 17,000 years.”

Associate Professor Danišík claimed the group researched the fate of magma left behind after the Toba super-eruption 75,000 years earlier, utilizing the minerals feldspar and zircon, which have independent records of time based on the buildup of the gasses argon and helium as time capsules in the volcanic rocks.

” Utilizing these geochronological data, statistical inference, and thermal modeling, we demonstrated that magma continued to ooze out within the caldera, or deep depression generated by the eruption of magma, for 5000 to 13,000 years following the super-eruption, and then the carapace of strengthened left-over magma was pushed upwards like a large turtle covering,” Affiliate Professor Danišík claimed.

” The findings defied existing knowledge and studying of eruptions, which usually includes searching for liquid magma under a volcano to evaluate the future threat. Currently, we must consider that eruptions can happen even if no fluid magma is discovered underneath a volcano– the concept of what is ”eruptible’ should be re-evaluated.

” A super-eruption can be impactful regionally and globally, and also healing may take decades or perhaps centuries. However, our outcomes show the danger is not over with the super-eruption, and the threat of additional hazards exists for several thousands of years after.

” Understanding when and how eruptive lava gathers, as well as in what state the magma is in before and also after such eruptions, is crucial for comprehending supervolcanoes.”

The study was led by researchers from Oregon State University and also co-authored by researchers from Heidelberg University, the Geological Agency of Indonesia, and also by Dr. Jack Gillespie from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Curtin’s flagship earth sciences research institute.

Read the original article on Scitechdaily.com.