Super volcanoes produce the largest and most voluminous kinds of eruptions ever recorded throughout earth history. Most super volcanoes are what volcanologists call caldera volcanoes. Caldera volcanoes are formed after magma has been erupted and the volcano collapses into the voided chamber.

The largest known super volcano is the Siberian Traps in Russia, which had the largest volcanic event in the last 500 million years. The Siberian Traps eruption, which lasted over a million years has been blamed for the Permian-Triassic extinction event. This extinction event occurred 252 million years ago, when 90% of all marine life and 70% of all other life became extinct.

What most do not realize is the number of these sleeping giants that exist. When someone in the United States hears the word super volcano they think "Yellowstone", but Yellowstone isn't the only monster that exists.

Some caldera volcanoes located in North America are Yellowstone (WY), Crater Lake (OR), Long Valley (CA), Sturgeon Lake (Ontario), Valle Grande (NM).

Some of the biggest caldera volcanoes from around the world are Krakotoa (Indonesia), Tambora (Indonesia), Toba (Sumatra), Taupo (New Zealand) and the Siberian Traps in Russia. There are over 138 caldera volcanoes in the world, whose crater exceeds 5 miles in diameter, 40 of which are super volcanoes.

Evidence shows that when super volcanoes erupt it effects our climate and the environment for many years after. The Toba eruption 74,000 years ago, and the 3 Yellowstone eruptions 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 640,000 years ago have been blamed for causing earths past ice ages.

Here's a good illustration of the eruptive capacity of a super volcano. Mount St. Helens 1980 eruption ejected 1.2 cubic kilometers of material, enough to fill a large sports stadium 1,569 times. The St. Helens eruption is very small compared to historic super eruptions.

The Toba eruption was the largest volcantic eruption in the last 2 million years, Toba ejected 2800 cubic kilometers of material, it cooled the whole Earth by 21 deg. F. The largest Yellowstone eruption ejected 2500 cubic kilometers of material. The eruption of the Siberian Flats ejected a staggering 3 million cubic kilometers of material.

Scientists have suggested that Yellowstone is on a 600,000 year eruption cycle, the last eruption was 640,000 years ago, that would mean we are overdue by about 40,000 years. Many inquiries have sought to ascertain whether Yellowstones activity levels are increasing significantly. Multiple reports on the internet have stated that "Yellowstone is at High Risk for Eruption".

With the increasing amount of earthquakes, dead Bison, increasing ground temperatures, higher amount of gas emissions and closing of some trails at Yellowstone, one has to wonder.

The last eruption in Long Valley California was just 250 years ago, which was small compared to the massive caldera forming eruption which occured 760,000 years ago.

In May 1980, a strong earthquake swarm with four earthquakes magnitude 6 or greater hit the south edge of Long Valley Caldera which caused an uplift in the dome by 25 cm. Since the 1980 earthquakes many more swarms have struck the area and have caused the dome uplift to increase and gas emissions to become more significant.

These are just a couple in a long list of active caldera volcanos.

When a giant super volcanoe like Toba or Yellowstone erupts, the effects are felt on a large scale around the world. They erupt with such a force and magnitude that they can change the very planet we live on. Ash from the eruption shoots into the atmosphere which prevents sunlight from reaching the ground. The temperature starts to cool extremely quickly. Day becomes night, not for days, not for weeks, but months or years. Cooling temperatures and lack of sunlight cause most plant life to die, and in turn the starvation of animal life. If one of these super volcanoes were to erupt our way of life could be over in a bang.

~Artemis

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