hey there!  welcome to the new episode of Curiosity! A series in which we will answer some of the questions that makes us all curious. 

A Volcano can cause a massive amount of  destruction after eruption. Even if you are nowhere near a volcano, you might not be immune to  catastrophic volcanic event. Volcanoes have power to wipe out entire city or an entire island. There are some really big volcanoes on Earth called Super volcanoes. But this volcanoes look more like a crater than a cone. But, the question here about super volcano is , can it wipe out all the life on Earth? To answer this question, we firstly have to know , how large a volcanic eruption can get through a Volcanic Explosivity Index.

What is Volcanic Explosivity Index?

It is basically a scale to measure the power of eruption of volcanoes. The scale starts from 0 and goes all the way to 8. The 0 being the very tiny explosion happening all the time on Earth and 8 being a Massive explosion known as Mega colossal Explosion with very large consequences.

Fig : Volcanic Explosivity Index (Credits)

The level 0 eruptions are very tiny eruptions. They just eject 0.0001 cubic km of ejecta . They are not even considered explosive in nature.

The scale 1 eruptions Ejects 0.001 cubic km of ejecta. As the scale goes up the eruption becomes 10 times stronger than previous.

With each step in the scale represents 10 times increase in the eruption of the Volcano. The scale 5 volcanic eruption is 10 times larger than scale 4 eruption. Similarly, scale 6 volcanic eruption is 100 times larger than scale 4 eruption, and scale 8 eruption is a million times larger than a scale 2 eruption. You get the idea, the things go a lot stronger as we move up the scale. 

How Powerful Volcanoes can actually get?

The eruption of Mt.vesuvius in 79 AD that completely buried the Roman Settlement of Pompeii and the Mt  St.Helens eruption in 1980 both are classified as Scale 5 Volcanic Eruptions. They are one of the biggest volcanic disasters ever occurred on Earth.

To put that in Perspective, the Mt St.helens Eruptions produces the energy Of 24 megatons , which is equivalent to 1600 times the explosion of Hiroshima.

As we Go up the Scale, things get ridiculous , The best know Scale 6 Volcanic eruption Occurred in 1883. It is Known as Krakatoa Volcanic Eruption. This happened in August of 1883  and was one of the deadliest disasters in the human history. It is estimated that more than 36000 people died because of tsunami later created. The volcano exploded with the power of 200 Megatons which is roughly 13000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and 4 times more powerful than biggest nuclear bomb on Earth "The Tsar Bomba". Such a Massive sound was generated from this explosion that it shattered ear drums of all the humans and animals that were in 60 km radius of the explosion. Also , Due to massive smoke covering the atmosphere the global temperature fell by 1.2 degree Celsius.

Fig:  Krakatoa Volcanic Eruption 1883 (Credits)

Similar level 6 volcanic eruption has occurred in Iceland in 1784 known as Laki Event. It was not as powerful as Krakatoa event but, pumped so much Sulfur-dioxide in to atmosphere, it actually killed 50 % all animals on Iceland.

But what would a Scale 7 Eruption would look like. Well it turns out, scale 7 eruption is already recorded in the history and just happens to be 2 centuries ago. This eruption too took place in an island of Indonesia. This explosion was so massive , that  all life on the island was immediately killed and 600 miles radius from the explosion plunged in to total darkness. 400 million tons of Ash was injected into our atmosphere that caused a 1 year long winter. It is estimated that 100,000 people were immediately killed in this explosion.

What About Scale 8 Super Volcano?

Turns out, Massive super volcanoes has erupted too in the past which brought the humanity closest to the mass Extinction. Approximately, 75000 years ago ,  Toba Super volcano which is also located in Indonesia actually hit the level 8 in the scale.  It was 3000 times more powerful than the Mt st.Helens Explosion and sent the whole planet into a decade long winter. The global temperature dropped by 15 degree Celsius. The total population of Earth reduced to just 3000 people.

Fig: Scale of Toba Volcanic Eruption (Credits)

What if A level 8 Super Volcano Exploded today?

Well, it seems, The Yellow stone Super volcano located in United States is the most likely candidate for this. There has already been 3 level 8 eruptions in Yellow stone super volcano in past 2.1 million years. It is estimated that the volcano has 1 in 700,000 chance to explode any time. The explosion would create the largest mass grave in the history. There would be winter for more than a decade causing agricultural disaster. 

Conclusion

Volcanoes do have power to cause a mass extinctions. Human civilization might completely change after a level 8 volcanic eruption but it's highly unlikely to wipe out all the humanity from Earth. Of course it would led the humanity to a major depression state but life would go in someway or another and adapt to the climate changes.

 That's it for this Episode guys, Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, Upvote and comment your thoughts below. Thank you

Stay Curious.

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Last Five Episodes:  

 Curiosity | Is time Travel Really Possible?

Curiosity | What would happen if Nuclear War breaks out?

Curiosity | How did life Begin On Earth?

Curiosity | What Happens when you go into Coma? 

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