RE: Anyone visit a volcano, or live near a volcano?
October 17, 2021 at 9:11 pm
(This post was last modified: October 17, 2021 at 9:27 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Most the earth’s continental land mass had been part of some volcano at some point in the geological past. If you take all of the earth’s lamd mass together, the average age to the most recent volcanic activity at any particular spot on lamd is roughly 1.5-1.7 billion years. Almost all of the earth’s ocean floor had been part of some volcano at, on average, some much more recent point in the geological past. The average age to the most recent volcanic activity at any particular spot on the ocean floor is only 100 million years.
So technically it is exceedingly difficult to live anywhere on the earth without living near what had at some time in the past been a volcano, for any arbitrary definition of “near”.
But if you mean do you live near an active or dormant volcano, as opposed to remains of long extinct volcanos, then the probability of thar is relatively low, unless you live near or on the pacific ring of fire, which includes Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan, and the entire west coasts of north and South America, or near the great Rift Valley of Africa, and central or eastern Mediterranean, Or if you live near a few isolated geological volcanic hot spots, such as Yellowstone, Hawaii, reunion, Tenerife, etc.
I live in CA, so I live active volcanos, if you take 200 miles to be near.
There is mt lassen, last erupted in 1917, and whose crater is easily accessible after a moderately strenuous hike. I’ve been there a few times. My Lassen is by far the largest lava dome type volcano in the world, so going there is interesting. But it still a puny thing compared to mt. Fuji.
There is mt Shasta, last erupted in 1786, which is of the same type as Mt Fuji, but slightly more bulky and 2000 feet taller. Reaching Shasta’s summit crater requires some rudimentary mountaineering skills. I’ve been meaning to do it, but haven’t yet.
Both Lassen and Shasta are considered active volcanos. If Mt Lassen erupts it will likely cause only local devastation. If mt Shasta erupts in a big way it would likely devastate northern 1/3 of California and parts of Oregon. Both mt Lassen and mt Shasta are within 200 miles north of where I live.
Then there is Long valley volcanic system. It is about 200 miles south east of where I live. The long valley system had been erupting intermittently for 2 million years, it last erupted during the 1800s. but it staged a truly terrifyingly massive eruption about 700,000 years ago. The eruption was so voluminous that ash fall from it made a thick layer in Nebraska, and the power of eruption was so great it send a pyroclastic flow westward with such violence that the flow climbed 6000 feet up the steep eastern escarpment Sierra Nevada mountains, overtopped the 12000 foot ridge of the mountain chain, and pour down the western slopes into the foot hills next to Central Valley.
During that single great eruption the long valley caldera ejected more than twice as much magma as the entire bulk of Mt Fuji, in likely less than just a few days.
It is difficult to appreciate how colossal the power of thar eruption was from ground level. The hole through which eruption poured forth is 20 miles across. Standing on one side of it the other side looks a distant chain of mountains. The highway that eventually cuts across the eruptive caldera first makes a long climb up what feel like the steep side of a 2000 foot high plateau about 40 miles from the eruption center. That steep side is the leading edge of the solidified pyroclastic flow sent out by the eruption.
Think about it.
So technically it is exceedingly difficult to live anywhere on the earth without living near what had at some time in the past been a volcano, for any arbitrary definition of “near”.
But if you mean do you live near an active or dormant volcano, as opposed to remains of long extinct volcanos, then the probability of thar is relatively low, unless you live near or on the pacific ring of fire, which includes Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan, and the entire west coasts of north and South America, or near the great Rift Valley of Africa, and central or eastern Mediterranean, Or if you live near a few isolated geological volcanic hot spots, such as Yellowstone, Hawaii, reunion, Tenerife, etc.
I live in CA, so I live active volcanos, if you take 200 miles to be near.
There is mt lassen, last erupted in 1917, and whose crater is easily accessible after a moderately strenuous hike. I’ve been there a few times. My Lassen is by far the largest lava dome type volcano in the world, so going there is interesting. But it still a puny thing compared to mt. Fuji.
There is mt Shasta, last erupted in 1786, which is of the same type as Mt Fuji, but slightly more bulky and 2000 feet taller. Reaching Shasta’s summit crater requires some rudimentary mountaineering skills. I’ve been meaning to do it, but haven’t yet.
Both Lassen and Shasta are considered active volcanos. If Mt Lassen erupts it will likely cause only local devastation. If mt Shasta erupts in a big way it would likely devastate northern 1/3 of California and parts of Oregon. Both mt Lassen and mt Shasta are within 200 miles north of where I live.
Then there is Long valley volcanic system. It is about 200 miles south east of where I live. The long valley system had been erupting intermittently for 2 million years, it last erupted during the 1800s. but it staged a truly terrifyingly massive eruption about 700,000 years ago. The eruption was so voluminous that ash fall from it made a thick layer in Nebraska, and the power of eruption was so great it send a pyroclastic flow westward with such violence that the flow climbed 6000 feet up the steep eastern escarpment Sierra Nevada mountains, overtopped the 12000 foot ridge of the mountain chain, and pour down the western slopes into the foot hills next to Central Valley.
During that single great eruption the long valley caldera ejected more than twice as much magma as the entire bulk of Mt Fuji, in likely less than just a few days.
It is difficult to appreciate how colossal the power of thar eruption was from ground level. The hole through which eruption poured forth is 20 miles across. Standing on one side of it the other side looks a distant chain of mountains. The highway that eventually cuts across the eruptive caldera first makes a long climb up what feel like the steep side of a 2000 foot high plateau about 40 miles from the eruption center. That steep side is the leading edge of the solidified pyroclastic flow sent out by the eruption.
Think about it.
