Super volcano eruptions may eliminate life

As per a recent study, life on Earth faces danger from a catastrophic “Supervolcano” which seismologists say is due to erupt in ‘200 million years’ time.

How is it happening?

As per researchers, at least two “piles” of rock the size of continents are crashing together as they shift at the bottom of earth’s mantle, 2,900 km beneath the Pacific Ocean. This process is creating a Florida-sized zone of partly molten rock that may be the root of either of two kinds of massive eruptions far in the future.This may generate massive plume eruptions on the timescale of 100 million to 200 million years from now.

What are Hotspot plume?

Hotspot plume supervolcano eruptions are like those during the past 2 million years at Wyoming’s Yellowstone caldera, which covered North America with volcanic ash. Massive flood basalt eruptions that formed “large igneous provinces” like the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River basalts 17 million to 15 million years ago, India’s Deccan Traps some 65 million years ago and the Pacific’s huge Ontong Java Plateau basalts, which buried an Alaska-sized area 125 million to 199 million years ago.

‘Thermochemical Piles’ or ‘superplumes’

There are two continent-sized “thermochemical piles” located on Earth’s core and beneath most of Earth’s volcanic hotspots – one under much of the South Pacific and extending up to 20 degrees north latitude, and the other under volcanically active Africa.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2013

Category: Science & Technology Current Affairs