September 3 (UPI) – It has long been assumed that after supervolcanoes explode, the threat of another massive eruption decreases considerably.
However, new research, published Friday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, suggests that supervolcanoes will remain active for thousands of years after a super eruption.
Previous surveys suggest that supervolcano eruptions are usually separated by tens of thousands of years, but so far researchers have known little about latency periods between massive eruptions.
“Gaining an understanding of these long periods of inactivity will determine what we look for in active young supervolcanoes to help us predict future eruptions,” Martin Danišík, lead author of the University’s Professor John de Laeter Center, said in a press release Curtin.
When supervolcanoes explode, they can expel deadly waves of molten hot rock in all directions.
Supervolcano explosions are a global phenomenon. Massive ash feathers produced by a supereruption can spread through the Earth’s upper atmosphere, blocking sunlight and causing what is known as a “volcanic winter”.
“Learning how supervolcanoes work is important to understanding the future threat of an inevitable super-eruption, which occurs about once every 17,000 years,” Danišík said.
To better understand the latency of the supervolcano, the researchers analyzed feldspar and zircon minerals in the magma deposited by the Toba supereruption 75,000 years ago.
By studying the argon and helium gases trapped in ancient mineral deposits, researchers were able to reconstruct Toba’s past.
“Using these geochronological data, statistical inference, and thermal modeling, we demonstrated that magma continued to flow into the caldera, or deep depression created by the magma eruption, for 5,000 to 13,000 years after the supererruption, and then the carapace of solidified excess magma was pushed upwards like a giant turtle shell, ”Danišík said.
Traditionally, volcanologists look for liquid magma under a volcano to assess its potential for catastrophic eruption. But recent findings suggest that supervolcanoes remain a threat even when there is no liquid magma.
“While a supereruption can have a regional and global impact and recovery can take decades or even centuries, our results show that the danger is not over with the supereruption and that the threat of additional dangers exists for many thousands of years later, ”Danišík said.
“Learning when and how eruptive magma accumulates and in what state magma is before and after these eruptions is critical to understanding supervolcanoes,” Danišík said.