SUPERVOLCANOES – EVIDENCE BOARD

1. How will the ash affect the planet? • Within 3-4 days a fine dusting of ash could fall across Europe. • Greatest danger within 1000 km of the eruption zone where 90% could be killed. • Inhaling the deadly toxins within the ash would be fatal over a period of time. • Kill and sicken humans/animals, reduce sunlight, trigger rainfall causing lahars, severely disrupt air, road and rail travel. • Crush buildings (only 30cm is needed) • Contaminate water supplies • Kill crops • Clog machinery used by industry. Prof. Steve Sparks (Geographer): “If a super eruption happened tomorrow you could argue that human society currently is very vulnerable. When the last super eruption occurred at Toba 74,000 years ago there weren't many humans on the planet, they may well have been affected, perhaps quite dramatically in terms of their numbers being reduced, but they fought back again otherwise we wouldn't be here today, now we're dealing with a planet of, with a population of six and a half billion people.” Cause/Formation... In Yellowstone it is caused by an underground HOTSPOT not plate margins... • Research/Consider how these could make the effects worse.... • Prevailing Wind Direction • Migration problems • Famine/Starvation Mark Maslin (Geographer): “My personal opinion is I have great faith in humanity, I think if something like this did occur the nations of the planet would pull together because resources would be so limited that they would have to be shared so I would see this as an opportunity for humanity to show itself in it's true light.” SUPERVOLCANOES – EVIDENCE BOARD Who would be affected? Experts believe that 2,000 million tonnes of sulphur could be ejected 20-50km above the Earth. It would take 2-3 weeks for the full effects to be felt. Geographers predict that the Monsoon rains in Asia would fail causing mass starvation in India, China and many other countries which rely on the water to grow crops. Europe could be up to 5C cooler. Really useful Weblinks... Discovery Channel Supervolcanoes World Maps showing various factors BBC Supervolcanoes BBC News Report Climate Change – only this time the opposite to Global Warming! A much colder climate would result in many parts of the world. A so called ‘Nuclear Winter’ could result and even a possible mini ice age. Sulphuric acid released as part of the ash cloud will build up in the upper atmosphere which would scatter sunlight making the sky look like a cloudy winter morning all day long. The Northern Hemisphere would cool by up to 12C. The world would cool by 10C on average. Experts predict that the cooling effects could be felt for 6-10 years.

2. The size of the area affected could be 10 million times the size of ‘Ground Zero’ in New York from 9/11 The world population is currently 6.4bn Your Challenge... You are working for ‘Federal Emergency Management Agency’ (FEMA) to make plans to deal with the effect of a possible eruption at Yellowstone. At the end of the lesson you need to explain your predictions for the effects in the world a year after the eruption. You must have: An annotated world map showing where you think people will die, and where humanity could survive. It needs a key and detailed annotations of the possible effects of the Yellowstone super-eruption. Be as precise as possible using accurate figures for deaths and how countries have been affected. An action plan for planet. Explain where you think survivors should live, how they will support themselves, and what form their lives would take. Consider jobs, housing, health, education, food as a starting point. Possible problems that could prevent your plans from working. Think about America’s relationship with other countries, and the problems that a ‘global community’ might face. Consider the effects of Migration, Food Shortage, Language Barriers, Culture Clashes and possible unrest/war. How to start.. Use the evidence board as a starting point for your research. Roughly annotate a world map to highlight affected areas. Research issues that you think would give you a detailed analysis of the effects of a super-eruption. You will need to know the population of different countries, but also you may need to link to agriculture, weather and climate and political issues. Yellowstone