April 10 and 11, 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the supereruption of Tambora volcano in today's Indonesia. The sulfate aerosols injected into the atmosphere during the eruption resulted food shortages and "the year without a summer" in the Northern Hemisphere.
Read more about Tambora's anniversary: http://
From the above article: In today's U.S. "Crater Lake was created by an eruption [similar to] Tambora's size 7,700 years ago, while the area around Yellowstone National Park was ground zero for a long series of super-eruptions, the most recent about 640,000 years ago, that blanketed much of the North American continent with ash. Long Valley caldera east of California's Sierra Nevada, within which sits the town of Mammoth, is considered an active supervolcano, though it's one and only huge eruption was 760,000 years ago."
Although supereruptions are often emphasized and dramatized in modern media, they are very rare. Additionally, because they are so large, if there ever were to be signs that a volcano is leading to supereruption, we would know years, perhaps even decades, in advance.
Learn about sulfate aerosols and volcanic eruptions here: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/
Learn more about supereruptions and Yellowstone on the YVO website FAQs: http://on.doi.gov/1ueQohP
Photograph of California's Long Valley caldera taken from the caldera rim looking toward the east. The ridge in the photograph is the northern caldera boundary. Steve Brantley, 1996.
#volcanoes #usgs #tambora #supereruption
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