Supervolcanoes
- Created by: Jenny Jones
- Created on: 10-03-14 19:08
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- Supervolcanoes
- develop at destructive plate boundaries or over parts of the mantle that are really hot (hotspots)
- 1) Magma rises up through cracks in the crust to form a large magma basin below the surface.
- The pressure of the magma causes a circular bulge on the surface several kilometers wide
- 2) The bulge eventually cracks, creating vents for lava to escape through.
- The lava erupts out of the vents causing earthquakes and sending up gigantic plumes of ash and rock
- 3) As the magma basin empties, the bulge is no longer supported so it collapses- spewing up more lava
- 4) When the eruption's finished there's a big crater (a caldera) left where the bulge collapsed. Sometimes these get filled with water to form a large lake
- Characteristics
- flat
- cover a large area
- Have a caldera
- Effects of a supervolcanic eruption
- will throw out thousands of cubic kilometres of rock, ash and lava
- a thick cloud of super-heated gas and ash will flow at high speeds killing and burning everything it touches
- everything within tens of miles will be destroyed
- ash will shoot kilometres into the air and block out almost all daylight
- The ash will also settle burying fields and building
- develop at destructive plate boundaries or over parts of the mantle that are really hot (hotspots)
- 3) As the magma basin empties, the bulge is no longer supported so it collapses- spewing up more lava
- cover a large area
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