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Cataclysmic
11 'super eruption' is MUCH closer than we thought, warns latest
research
Scientists at Bristol University have analysed geological records from the last 100,000 years

124 11 By Stephen Beech

SHARES COMMENTS 13:36, 29 NOV 2017 UPDATED 13:41, 29 NOV 2017

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We may be much nearer to a cataclysmic volcanic 'super-eruption' than previously thought, warns new research.

That is the conclusion of Bristol University scientists after analysing a database of geological records dated within the last 100,000 years.

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They discovered the average time between so-called volcanic super-eruptions is actually much less than previously understood.

Volcanoes and 'bolides' - such as asteroids - are geohazards powerful enough to be destructive on a global scale.

One recent assessment described them as capable of returning humanity to a 'pre-civilisation' state.

The largest explosive eruptions are termed 'super-eruptions', and produce in excess of 1,000 gigatons of erupted mass - enough to blanket an
entire continent with volcanic ash, and change global weather patterns for decades.

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Researchers at Bristol's Schools of Earth Sciences and Mathematics estimated how often the largest explosive eruptions happen.
 Their analysis indicates that the average time between super-eruptions is only slightly longer than the age of our civilisation - dating from the
Agricultural Revolution 12,000 years ago.

Professor Jonathan Rougier said: "The previous estimate, made in 2004, was that super-eruptions occurred on average every 45 to 714
thousand years, comfortably longer than our civilisation.

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"But in our paper just published, we re-estimate this range as 5.2 to 48 thousand years, with a best guess value of 17 thousand years."
 According to geological records, the two most recent super-eruptions were between 20 and 30 thousand years ago.

Prof Rougier added: "On balance, we have been slightly lucky not to experience any super-eruptions since then.

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"But it is important to appreciate that the absence of super-eruptions in the last 20 thousand years does not imply that one is overdue. Nature
is not that regular.
 "What we can say is that volcanoes are more threatening to our civilisation than previously thought."

He said our civilisation will change in unimaginable ways over the next thousand years, and there are many other ways in which it might suffer a
catastrophic blow well before the next super-eruption.

On that basis, Prof Rougier says there is little need to plan now for a super-eruption, especially with many other pressing issues to address,
which will affect the current and the next generation of humans.

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But large eruptions, which are much more frequent, can still be devastating for communities and even countries, and careful planning is a
crucial part of disaster risk reduction.

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Regarding the ndings, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Prof Rougier added: "As well as improving our
understanding of global volcanism, our paper develops relatively simple techniques to analyse incomplete and error-prone geological and
historical records of rare events.
 "These diculties are ubiquitous in geohazards, and we expect our approach will be used for reappraising other types of hazard, such as
earthquakes."

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WyattNevada
1 HOUR AGO

Cant wait to see all the millennials running around going -

"dude - I can't get on the internet"

 Reply Share Report 0 0

Fedup22
1 HOUR AGO

There isn't a damn thing anyone can do about it. Humans can not control these things. If your that worried get on your knees and start praying. Revelation
states world will end with re falling from the sky.

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11 DonnyD
2 HOURS AGO

We are all gonna die! Oh wait, we already knew that.

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Dudeman
2 HOURS AGO

A time frame of around 20,000 years ago would coincide with Plato's account of his talk with an Egyptian. The dialog of Timaeus is worth a read in the entirety.

There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of re
and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a timePhaeton, the son
ofHelios, having yoked the steeds in his fathers chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth,
and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the
earth, and a greatconagrationof things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and
lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore."
 Reply Share Report 0 0

JGGrimm
3 HOURS AGO

Are the scientists trying to tell us there is going to be another really, really big volcano eruption on the earth? Because if they are I an only say "okay".

Reply Share Report 0 0

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