Volcanoes can inject sulphur gas into the upper atmosphere, forming sulphuric acid aerosols that rapidly spread around the globe. The most wide reaching effect of a Yellowstone eruption would be much colder weather. Fertilisers, soaps, household cleaners, metal polish and cement often contain volcanic ash. Useful stuff: A Washington State resident sweeps ash from his roof after the eruption of Mount St Helens.Īsh creates numerous hazards, but it also has positive uses. The worst of these effects would not be experienced in Europe where the ash covering would only amount to a dusting. Crush buildings – 30 cm of dry ash is enough to collapse a roof.Severely disrupt air, road and rail transport.Trigger rainfall causing mudslides known as lahars.Instead it is blasted into countless airborne ash particles – tiny scorching particles of jagged rock.
Because supervolcanoes are highly explosive, much of the magma doesn't get a chance to become lava. Many people think that lava flows are the most dangerous volcanic hazards, but ash is often the biggest killer. Even the US East Coast could be paralysed by 1cm of ash.
Large numbers of people would die across the country – inhaled ash forms a cement-like mixture in human lungs. The greatest danger would be within 1,000 km of the blast where 90 per cent of people could be killed. The model shows that the fallout from a Yellowstone super-eruption could affect three quarters of the US. The computer model predicts how ash would spread following a nine-day June eruption of 1000 cubic km of ash and gas from Yellowstone. Within 3-4 days, a fine dusting of ash could fall across Europe, according to a UK Met Office computer forecast commissioned by the BBC. Explosive eruptions like supervolcanoes pose a much greater threat to humans. River of fire: Lava streams from the Hawaiian volcano Kilauea in 1959.Īlthough it may look bad, geologists consider such eruptions to be 'quiet'. It probably wouldn't take long for the first physical signs to appear. US television networks would probably bring the first news of a Yellowstone super-eruption to the UK.
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