Supervolcanoes are one of nature's most destructive forces. In a matter of hours, an eruption from a supervolcano can force thousands of cubic meters of molten rock above ground, and scar landscapes with massive calderas and craters. These catastrophic eruptions have a global impact, and yet scientists still do not fully understand them. Today, a team of scientists studying Bolivia's Uturuncu volcano is trying to shed some light on how supervolcanoes can become so powerful.
Satellite image of Lake Toba, the site of a VEI-8 eruption ~75,000 years ago, the most recent supervolcano eruption
Credit: Wikipedia
Uturuncu, nestled within one of the largest collections of supervolcano calderas on Earth, isn't simply getting larger: it is the fastest growing volcano on the planet. Since monitoring began in the 1980s, the magma chamber has been steadily increasing at a rate of one centimeter per year. Could Uturuncu be the next supervolcano? And will any of us be alive to see this magnificent volcano come to a catastrophic end? Find out at http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/5ef-7dc-1-11
Read this story and more in the January issue of EARTH Magazine, available online now at http://www.earthmagazine.org/digital/. Learn about the astronomy under the ice; travel to Utah to take in some of the most dramatic geologic scenery in the world; and, read about how inland waters are releasing much more carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought.
Contacts and sources:
Megan Sever
American Geological Institute
Satellite image of Lake Toba, the site of a VEI-8 eruption ~75,000 years ago, the most recent supervolcano eruption
Credit: Wikipedia
Uturuncu, nestled within one of the largest collections of supervolcano calderas on Earth, isn't simply getting larger: it is the fastest growing volcano on the planet. Since monitoring began in the 1980s, the magma chamber has been steadily increasing at a rate of one centimeter per year. Could Uturuncu be the next supervolcano? And will any of us be alive to see this magnificent volcano come to a catastrophic end? Find out athttp://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/5ef-7dc-1-11
Uturuncu, or Uturunku, the highest summit in southwestern Bolivia, is a stratovolcano. The volcano produced lava between 890,000 and 271,000 years ago, with younger lavas found at higher altitudes. There are clusters of active fumarole near the summit.
Researchers have determined that a large, roughly circular "disc" of land surrounding the volcano, approximately 70 km across, has been rising at a rate of 1 to 2 cm per year since at least the early 1990s, making it "one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on the Earth", according to volcanologist Shan de Silva.
Uturuncu, nestled within one of the largest collections of supervolcano calderas on Earth, isn't simply getting larger: it is the fastest growing volcano on the planet. Since monitoring began in the 1980s, the magma chamber has been steadily increasing at a rate of one centimeter per year. Could Uturuncu be the next supervolcano? And will any of us be alive to see this magnificent volcano come to a catastrophic end? Find out athttp://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/5ef-7dc-1-11
Uturuncu, or Uturunku, the highest summit in southwestern Bolivia, is a stratovolcano. The volcano produced lava between 890,000 and 271,000 years ago, with younger lavas found at higher altitudes. There are clusters of active fumarole near the summit.
Researchers have determined that a large, roughly circular "disc" of land surrounding the volcano, approximately 70 km across, has been rising at a rate of 1 to 2 cm per year since at least the early 1990s, making it "one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on the Earth", according to volcanologist Shan de Silva.
Uturuncu
Uturuncu, nestled within one of the largest collections of supervolcano calderas on Earth, isn't simply getting larger: it is the fastest growing volcano on the planet. Since monitoring began in the 1980s, the magma chamber has been steadily increasing at a rate of one centimeter per year. Could Uturuncu be the next supervolcano? And will any of us be alive to see this magnificent volcano come to a catastrophic end? Find out at http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/5ef-7dc-1-11
Read this story and more in the January issue of EARTH Magazine, available online now at http://www.earthmagazine.org/digital/. Learn about the astronomy under the ice; travel to Utah to take in some of the most dramatic geologic scenery in the world; and, read about how inland waters are releasing much more carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought.
Contacts and sources:
Megan Sever
American Geological Institute
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