Right now, as you are watching this video,
about 20 volcanos are erupting around the world. And while some of their summits have been
continuously spitting out clouds of ash for months at a time, others have
just woken up. You might not have known about these volcanic
statistics before the video began. But imagine if such a horrifying sight - a
freshly erupting volcano - appeared out your window
right now, under your very eyes! You would probably need to run away as far
as possible to get away from the hot spewing lava and the deadly
pyroclastic cloud. But -
indeed - one day, there may be nowhere to run away to. Scientists count a total of 1532 volcanoes
on the surface of the Earth...at least at the moment. Fortunately, during the entire period of human
existence, only 600 of them have ever been active. 160 volcanos erupt about once every
decade, with about 50 more erupting annually. Thankfully, most of them
are fairly small volcanoes, relatively speaking, and don’t do much
damage or cause any harm. But, if one of the most formidable and awe-
inspiring of these “mountains of fire” for some reason decided to run at
its full capacity...believe it or not, the whole planet could find itself in
trouble. Among these Earth-threatening mega-sized volcanoes
is one called Mount Merapi - or Gunung Merapi in Indonesian
- which literally means Fire mountain. Located
in the central part of the Island of Java, this most active volcano in all
Indonesia has a height of 1.8 miles - or about 3 kilometers. This ticking
time bomb - though not erupting at the moment - continues to emit
smoke all day, every day, reminding the nearby settlements of its
existence and destructive power. Every few years this fire mountain
turns into an erupting hell, damaging or destroying nearby cities and
towns. Another one of these potentially Earth destroying
uber-volcanoes is situated on the other side of the globe, in
the central part of the North American continent, and is known as the Yellowstone
Supervolcano. This huge mega-
volcano has erupted only 3 times in all of history, the last time being
about 630,000 years ago. And each time it did erupt, it caused massive,
world-altering cataclysms. Mountain ranges were destroyed, the Earth
itself rose. Over the eons the summit collapsed and created
a giant pit in the Earth, a super crater now known as the
Yellowstone Caldera. It width
varies from between 30 to 45 miles - that’s 50 to 70 km. That’s one big
volcano. In more recent history, America’s first
national park - Yellowstone - was establish encompassing the
entire beautiful and breathtaking area. It is certainly the most famous national park
in the USA, and is well known throughout the world. Both the park and the
volcano take their name from the Yellowstone River, whose headwaters
are within the confines of the park. But even today, the at-the-moment
dormant Yellowstone Supervolcano continues to pose an enormous
threat to mankind. In the case of an eruption, the USA would
be utterly devastated, with a good half of the American
states getting buried in ash, and multiple knock-on effects devastating
much of the world’s ecosystems and economies. People who enjoy traveling and moving to new
cities and locales will be more than happy to settle near Mount Vesuvius
located in the Gulf of Naples.This is
because each of Vesuvius’ eruptions guarantees instant emigration to
another city. At present, Vesuvius is said to be sleeping...but
don’t let that fool you... it is also still considered
to be one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world, as more than 3 million
people live nearby. But as it
is sleeping, the title of “city destroyer” must pass to Nyiragongo, at least
for the moment. Mount Nyiragongo is a still active “fire
mountain”, or volcano, on the African continent, in Virunga National Park
in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mount Nyiragongo has erupted 34 times since
1882, with activity continuing for months, and even sometimes
years. This volcano is
remarkable in that its crater contains an active lava lake. In 1977, part of
the crater collapsed and the hot lava inside burst out, with the fiery
stream moving at speeds of up to 62 miles or 100 km an hour,
devouring, incinerating, and destroying everything in its path. The crater filled again soon after, but scientists and
engineers have so far managed to prevent a new lava spill. Alas, it may be deadly dangerous...but still,
the lava lake on the top of Mount Nyiragongo looks so beautiful and
picturesque, you might believe that Frodo should have brought the One
Ring here… But if one super-volcanic awakening can bring
world-wide catastrophe... what might happen if all the volcanoes on
our lovely planet all erupted simultaneously? A synchronized volcanic doomsday event such
as we are imagining would lead to such terrible consequences that
even multiple nuclear explosions might not match it. The concomitant earthquakes and lava
flows would already obviously cause tremendous damage, but they are
nothing compared to the twin threats of: ash, and volcanic gases. Under such a scenario, a layer of ash will
rise into the atmosphere and almost completely block any sunlight from
reaching the Earth. Good
news for sellers of flashlights and light bulbs, pretty awful news for
everyone else. This darkness will last for 10 years, which
means no photosynthesis, the death of all plants, and
temperature decreasing to a critical level. Of course, not all volcanoes clog up the atmosphere. The
ones in Hawaii are a good example...they just spew small streams of
lava. However, the most active, largest, and most
powerful of these volcanoes will cover entire continents with
ash in a matter of hours. But, as we have learned in modern times how
to disperse clouds somewhat, you might think we could manage
to do something about these ash clouds as well. And we might... but is there anything we could
possibly do about the volcanic gases? These gases are a
death filled cocktail of hydrochloric acid, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and
sulfur dioxide. Shake well, add water - and you get an acid
rain that pollutes all of our groundwater, as well as
the surface of all of our oceans. Changes in the composition of the water will
lead to the death of corals and mollusks, and after that, species
after species will fall in a domino effect, with eventually the entire
food chain likely disappearing. You might think the chance of something like
this happening is vanishingly small...and it is very unlikely. But not impossible. A
comparative analysis of ancient sedimentary rock formations revealed
that the mass disappearance of prehistoric fauna was caused by multiple
volcanic eruptions. Fortunately, volcanologists from Redford University
in Virginia have determined that - in our time
- such a development is truly quite unlikely. But if it does happen, there will be almost
no one to assess the damage. Everyone left will just be trying their best
to survive the apocalyptic end times. However, even a single, solitary eruption
can adversely affect the atmosphere. A recent example is the Mount Pinatubo volcano
in the Philippines, which erupted in 1991. One of the strongest explosions on Earth over
the last century, it led to a decrease in temperature of 1° F - or about
0.6° C - and caused the ozone hole over Antarctica in the Southern
Hemisphere to increase to unprecedented size. Thankfully - so far -
nothing indicates that this kind of catastrophe is going to happen again
any time soon, but don’t sigh with relief and kick your feet up just yet. The fact is that our land-based volcanos are
just a small percentage of the total number of volcanos on our dear planet...
scientists believe that about 80% of all volcanic eruptions happen
under our oceans, most of them thousands of feet deep, and very difficult
to spot. Recently though,
geophysicists from the University of Texas discovered a super-duper-
uber-volcano at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, in theory capable of
turning our entire surface world into one big Pompeii. This volcano is located at a distance of 932
miles or 1500 kilometers from the east coast of Japan. If we look at the area the object covers,
we can rightfully call it the largest volcano
on the surface of our planet, and indeed in the entire solar system: the diameter
of the crater reaches and astounding 388 miles, or 625 kilometers, and
its area covers a mind- bogglingly massive 100,386 square miles, or
160,000 sq. km. This monster volcano goes by the moniker “the
Tamu Massif”, and volcanologists say that it “fell asleep” more than 140
million years ago. Thank goodness
it has not shown any proclivity towards waking from its slumber since. It’s unknown when the volcano might one
day awaken once more...but one thing is clear: if Tamu’s “sleep”
comes to an end, the best solution will be for us all to find another planet
to live on. Fortunately for us, mankind has recently been
considering Mars as a kind of second home...a potential refuge for
all of us in the case of world ending earthly catastrophes, and that includes
volcanoes. But there is
one little problem...or rather I should say “big” problem. The tallest
volcano in the entire Solar System is called Olympus Mons, and it just so
happens to be located on - yes, you guessed it - the Red Planet. This
giant has a height of more than 16 miles - or 26 kilometers - with its
diameter stretching for 335 miles (or 540 kilometers). Hypothetically,
conquering the summit of Olympus Mons shouldn’t be all that difficult,
due to is gently sloping sides. Mountain climbers of the future are going
to be a little disappointed. But I would advise they take a pair of skis
or a snowboard...the descent is gonna be hella
awesome. Olympus Mons
- is a volcano that formed under conditions somewhat
like that of a melting candle. Lava streams flowed down the slopes and froze
there, over and over again, continually increasing the total
area of the massif. Analysis of
images from the USA’s Mars rover showed that the peak of the fiery
mountain’s activity occurred between 20 and 200 million years ago,
when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth! However, the most recent traces
of activity on the mountain are only about 2 million years old. This means
that Olympus Mons may not be extinct, but is rather a sleeping volcano! And if it awakens once more from its slumber,
it will be an historical event in our solar system... To understand just how truly massive Olympus
Mons really is, let’s move it to the surface of the Earth to compare
it to some Earth landmarks. The
area it covers is comparable to that of all of the British Isles. Or looked at
another way, just its shadow would completely engulf Mount Everest, and in true size it leaves Everest in the
dust, making our tallest Earth mountain look like some kind of tiny little
bump on the horizon. Olympus Mons is so big that - standing at
the top looking down - all you can see is the smooth slope
disappearing beyond the curve of the horizon. It’s literally impossible to view it all
from the planet itself. The entire massif can be only seen from orbit. So, if you want to
leave a message for some spacefarers, the slopes of this volcano are an
ideal place to leave it. At least until some new lava flows cover it
up. Nonetheless, it’s still too early to worry
about another eruption. Unlike
the Earth, Mars has no tectonic plates. This means that Olympus could
slumber away for a very long time. But if an eruption does happen one
day, and you are living there...it will literally overshadow the Sun. If Mars
turns out to be more inhospitable that we imagined, scientists will have
to think hard and long about a Plan B. What do you think? Where could
humanity move to? Or if we don’t move, how might we adapt
to the consequences of such a catastrophe? Please leave your theories in the
comments below! If this video gets a lot of likes, and we
get a lot of comments about potential places for people
to inhabit in the Universe, we will devote one of our future episodes
to this topic! So, if you liked the video, give it a thumbs
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