I think there's still a difference in the sort of super volcano. There are about 40 recorded super volcanoes in the world, if I'm not mistaken. If some erupt, it would mean a change in the climate, but not the end of the world. If I'm right, it's only about 5 super volcanoes, like the Yellowstone caldera, that have once erupted with factor 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index: they could erupt so heavily that there would be so much ashes in the atmosphere that the sunlight couldn't reach the earth anymore, which means the end for human life. But I get the impression that the heavier the volcano, the bigger the intervals in which it is likely to erupt. "2012" is a nice movie about the Yellowstone eruption, but the chances of us being witness of the eruption of a super volcano in our lifetime here on earth is statistically very low.
Still, I was on holidays in Germany, just over the Belgian - German border. There's the "Vulkaneifel" area, with 350 volcanoes. Most of them dead, but some onmy asleep and there is still volcanic activity, like two cold water geysirs which work because of CO2 that comes directly from subterranean magma and we visited many old volcanoes, and crater lakes. There's the Maria Laach volcano which has once erupted with factor 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It had once catapulted little stones as far as the south of Sweden and the north of Italy! If it would erupt again, the whole of Belgium and the south of the Netherlands could be covered with a thick layer of ashes. I must say, I was impressed!
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Supervolcanos
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Falx wrote:
