Yellowstone case study - Likely effects of an eruption

1. Destroy 10,000km squared of land
2. Kill 87,000 people
3. 15cm of ash would cover buildings within 1,000 km 
4. 1 in 3 people affected would die
5. Lahars (mudflows)
6. Transport, electricity, water and farming would be affected by ash
7. Global climates would change
8. Crops would be affected leading to possible food shortages 
9. Within 3-4 days, a fine dusting of ash could fall across Europe 
10. Buildings would be crushed - 30cm of dry ash is enough to collapse a roof

Supervolcanoes key terms

Supervolcano: A mega colossal volcano that erupts at least 1,000km cubed of material 

Caldera: The depression of the super volcano marking the collapsed magma chamber 

Geothermal: Water that is heated beneath the ground, which comes to the surface in a variety of ways

Geyser: A geothermal feature in which water erupts into the air under pressure

Hot Spot: A section of the earth's crust where plumes of magma rise, weakening the crust. These are away from plate boundaries. 

Past exam questions:

Describe the size and shape of a super volcano

Much bigger than volcanoes, e.g Yellowstone magma chamber is 80km wide; they emit 1,000km cubed of material; they do not have a cone shape but a depression called a caldera with a rim around the edge.