Monday, December 18, 2006

Super volcano

A super volcano it refers to a volcano that produces the largest and most voluminous kinds of eruption on Earth. The actual explosivity of these eruptions varies, but the sheer volume of extruded magma is enough to radically alter the landscape and severely impact global climate for years, with a cataclysmic effect on life.

The term was originally coined by the producers of the BBC popular science program, Horizon, in 2000 to refer to these types of eruption. That investigation brought the subject more into the public eye, leading to further studies of the possible effects. At first, super volcano was not a technical term used in volcanology, but more recently, in 2003 and 2004, the term has been used in articles. Though there is no well-defined minimum size for a "super volcano", there are at least two types of volcanic eruption that have been identified as super volcanoes: massive eruptions and large igneous provinces.

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