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Valles Caldera Volcano
The super volcano and the hot magma beneath the caldera can cause an eruption which will cover Las Alamos, and many small towns in the region
Brandon Neel
4/9/2014
English 218
History
One of the largest and youngest volcanoes and considered a super volcano in the United States is known as the Valles Caldera. The location of the volcano is in the Jemez Mountains by Santa Fe New Mexico. New research from the scientists in the Valles Caldera concerning ejected microscopic textured rock and hot magma beneath the caldera can cause an eruption which will cover Las Alamos, and many small towns in the area. The ejected textured rock from the eruption 60,000 years ago, illustrates that the Valles Caldera is in a new stage of volcanic activity. The hot magma beneath the crust may indicate an eruption tomorrow or near future. If the volcano does erupt it will cover Las Alamos and the many small towns in the area; therefore, a monitoring program is to keep a watch on the volcanic activity is recommended.
The developed volcano occurred around 1.25 million years ago when the volcano erupted into the stratosphere. The Valles Caldera is roughly 25 kilometers in diameter or 15.53 miles wide. As of right now the Valles Caldera volcano is dormant at this time, however, the scientist believes that there will be an eruption any time soon. The new studies have showed that the last eruption the volcano has had was around 60,000 years ago and by studying the ejected microscopic rock indicates that the volcano has entered into a new phase of volcanic movement.
Evolution of the Valles Caldera
The first graph show how the Valles Caldera volcano was formed. The top section was the early eruptions of lava and ash which sta...
... middle of paper ...
...in the region have become fruitful where the volcanic ash had built up and the marine life can develop from the iron and the silica from the volcanic ash. The caldera eruptions have only happen two to four events per million years.
Summary
The Valles Caldera volcano or super volcano is right now a dormant volcano, but this super volcano can erupt anytime. If this volcano erupts into the atmosphere it will cover Las Alamos and many small towns in the region. The eruption of the Valles caldera volcano can alter the climate change which will not only harm the animal population, but also the environment. Scientist is still researching the volcano even though they do not know when the next eruption will take place. The scientists have studied the rocks over the previous eruptions and have taken place before when they were drilling into the heart of the Valles Caldera.
Many of us know Mount Shasta to be a beautiful mountain and a popular tourist location in California. However, this mountain is much more than that, this mountain is actually a volcano. Volcanoes come with a number of hazards and a volcano of this size is of no exception. Previous eruptions on Mount Shasta have given us an idea of the power this volcano has and the damage it may do. With this information scientists are able to predict what may happen should another explosion occur.
Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press, 354 p., p. 158-160, Contribution by Patrick Pringle.
On May 18th, 1980, one of the most prominent volcanic eruptions in US History took place in the state of Washington. Mount St. Helens had been dormant for almost 100 years before March 15th. On this day, two months before the eruption several small earthquakes shook the earth. This indicated a magma buildup below the surface, and the first minor event that would lead to one of the greatest eruptions the US has ever known. Following the first set of earthquakes, “Steam explosions blasted a 60- to 75-m (200- to 250-ft) wide crater through the volcano 's summit ice cap and covered the snow-clad southeast sector with dark ash. Within a week the crater had grown to about 400 m (1,300 ft) in diameter and two giant crack systems crossed the entire summit area. Eruptions occurred on average from
...e than 30 volcanoes that have erupted over the past 300,000 years in the Lassen Peak volcanic area.
volcanoes that are located in our region. In our Big Bend and Fort Davis areas, when
What is a super volcano, what is a volcano? A volcano itself is a hill or mountain with vents to the crusts of the earth that let magma sit under or in the mountain. “A super volcano is any volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi). This is thousands of times larger than normal volcanic eruptions. Super volcanos are on a much bigger scale than other volcanoes. Unlike composite volcanoes, with their steep sides, they are difficult to spot.” (Internet Geography, geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk) An average volcano in the world would just cause local damage, but this super volcano could end life on earth. Not just with the eruption but the ash would cause a volcanic winter blocking the sun to long and then even more the ash would choke everything out and collapse roofs. Yea Rainier would kill thousands of people, but Yellowstone would literally kill billions plus of people. In comparison, Rainier is a little fly and Yellowstone is a Griffin {The big eagle lion bird thing}. Yellowstone has the capability to erupt 1,000 times stronger than Rainier ever could.
...815 eruption of Mount Tambora. With over 70,000 deaths and a rating of 7 on the volcanic exclusivity index, this eruption is one of the largest in recorded history. Not only did this volcano cause destruction in Indonesia but the consequences were further felt around the world, as volcanic ash and sulphuric gases were dumped into the stratosphere causing a global climate shift. Dark clouds covered the sun, and dramatic weather changes ensued. Flash floods frequently occurred wiping out a great deal of crop eventually causing prices to skyrocket. Disease began to spread due to malnourishment and unsanitary living conditions. Eventually these consequences subsided and citizens began to migrate towards Mount Tambora once again. Today the government has placed seismic sensors are set up in the most volatile areas to ensure preparedness in the event of another volcano.
The eruption on Mount Saint Helens has a specific cause and comes with many effects. A multifold of people would say that the “mountain looked like the site of an atomic blast” (Bredeson 30). That is a very accurate depiction as it took great power to inflict as much damage as it did. The reason for this impressive amount of force is that when magma is built up with pressure and an earthquake hits, the pressure gets magnified and the volcano explodes (Lewis). This is exactly what happened inside Mount Saint Helens. Furthermore, it has been revealed that “The earthquake that triggered the explosion was a 5.2 on the Richter scale” (Gunn 559). The earthquake to the magma can be compared as a match to gasoline. Even though the earthquake was not huge, the scale of the eruption was much greater than that of the earthquake (Gunn 560). The earthquake was only the trigger that allowed for more devastating things to occur. Thirteen hundred feet of the volcano were lost in the explosion followed by landslides, mudslides, and lava flows...
The first time I saw Mt. Rainier for myself, was last summer when my boyfriend and I drove to Washington. It was the most beautiful, peaceful looking mountain I have ever seen. However, underneath it's great beauty, it hides a deadly secret. Mt. Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes that we have here in the United States. One of the reasons it is so dangerous is because of it's great beauty. People enjoy looking at it, and the area that surrounds it, so they have made their homes here. Mt Rainier is not the only volcano I am interested in, in fact this last summer I also went to Mt. St. Helens and Crater Lake. But it is the volcano I chose to research for this paper because it does have so much beauty and at the same time so much power. I already know the basics about volcanoes, how they form, the different types, etc., but I wanted to find out more about what would happen if this great volcano were to erupt, what type of eruption would it be, and how would it affect the people that live around it.
Mauna Loa is an example of a basaltic shield volcano. The volcano is only 600,000 to 1,000,000 years old, which is young for a volcano. The world’s oldest volcano that is still active today is Etna, which recordly first erupted in 1500 BC. Mauna Loa’s first eruption didn’t come until the early to mid-1800s. However, the volcano has erupted a whopping 33 to 39 times since.
Digging up the dirt on Mauna Loa. (Hawaiian volcano studied) Science News v144, n25-26 December 18th, 1993 414 (1 page)
Volcanoes are one of the most destructive forces on Earth. It is estimated that some 500 million people live near active volcanoes (Lutgens and Tarbuck, 2013). Of the Earth's known volcanoes, 70 are expected to erupt each year with at least one large eruption each decade (Lutgens & Tarbuck, 2013). As populations continue to increase and more people are attracted to the beauty surrounding these areas, the immediate threat to humans from these sometimes sleeping giants grows. Due to this, the study of volcanoes and the service that volcanologists provide to the public by way of information and predictions on activity is immeasurable.
Tamu Massif, does this name sound familiar to anyone? Well, it may soon become a household name, one that will change the history of science books. Tamu Massif, so named from the founding University, Texas A&M University and the french word for “massive”, has been found in the Pacific seabed, about 1,000 miles east of Japan. This is the world’s largest volcano, actually the biggest in the entire solar system, imagine a volcano the size of the state of New Mexico, massive! 20 years of studying the mountain range, Shatsky Rise, that was formed 130 to 145 millions years ago, had produced the findings of a 120,000 square miles of volcano. Though scientists don’t know if it is a single volcano or one of a series of complex volcano’s, they do know
inferred for the reservoir (4). The magma ascent to the surface occurred through a conduit of possibly 70 to 100 m in diameter (5). A thermal model predicts that such a reservoir should contain a core of partially molten magma (6) that can be detected by high-resolution seismic tomography.