Super-dangerous super-volcanoes: Predictable at last?
By Amy Toburen
The Why Files
February 2, 2012
Topic in Environmental Science: Natural Disasters
In the article “Super-dangerous super volcanoes: Predictable at last?” by Amy Toburen, she is writing about how “Super-volcanoes” are not predictable and they are able to strike at anytime, this is until now. Scientists have developed a way to track the actions of a volcano and when, more or less, the volcano might erupt. This method is especially important of super-volcanoes such as the volcano of Santorini, which has been known to erupt rarely, but erupt with tremendous power. The Santorini super-volcano is off the coast of the island Santorini, which is part of Greece. This volcano has been known to cause havoc across the lands, as it has erupted in the past with insane power, cause famine and death along its path. Scientist are anxious to know when this volcano and other super-volcanoes are going to erupt with the big burst of power they are known for, but scientist never had a way to predict these events. But now, they have seen microscopic changes in the build up of crystal caverns full of magma inside the volcano that have emerged in large amounts that seem to show that there are many pressure points inside the volcano that are ready to blow. Since the last apoplectic eruption from the Santorini volcano was about 18,000 years ago, this data shows that the Santorini volcano is set to erupt in a small timeframe. This technique of observation of the crystal caverns inside the volcanoes may help us to predict when the next super-eruption might occur.
I chose this article because recently on the news, I have been hearing about a lot of activity in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park and since I knew that there has been volcanic eruptions in that area before, then I was lead to believe that a volcanic eruption is soon to happen at Yellowstone. I was curious if scientist has developed a way to predict, or at least track, when a volcanic eruption might occur at a certain location. I had found this article about how we might be able to predict when a volcano might erupt and I grew an interest about this. I think that the most interesting thing to me was that the observations these scientist were making were very minute, but at the same time, very significant. These observations might lead to us being able to predict when a volcano might erupt and we can have time to prepare and take shelter from the eruption. I think that this article is important to me because I like to stay informed about what is around me and if this technique is used to predict local volcanic eruptions around San Diego, I can stay informed about when and where some event might happen.
I think that this article is very significant because it raises awareness to what might happen and what might be the effects towards us. Also, because now, scientists have a way to predict when one natural disaster might happen and they will be able to alert the public before the actual eruption.