“Equivalent to an asteroid”: Scientists fear a huge volcanic eruption

by time news

Scientists in the United Kingdom warn that the world is “sadly unprepared” for the event of a violent volcanic eruption and that there is no recognition of the expected dramatic effect on humanity, warning that the eruption that occurred in Tonga last January was “equivalent to an asteroid almost hitting the Earth” and that it must serve as a “wake-up call” “.

According to the study in the journal Nature, the researchers from the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and the University of Birmingham analyzed data from ice cores at both poles of the Earth and concluded that the chance of a magnitude 7 eruption (10 to 100 times the Tonga eruption) or more in the current century is 1 in 6.

Another conclusion of the scientists after analyzing the signatures of the eruptions in the ice cores is that an eruption of magnitude 7 occurs once in 625 years and an eruption of magnitude 8 occurs once in 14,300 years – a higher frequency than the existing estimates that spoke of a frequency of once in 1,200 years and once in 17 thousand sleep.

The last known magnitude 7 eruption occurred in Indonesia in 1815 and caused the death of ten thousand people due to lava flows, tsunamis and heavy rocks and ash that damaged buildings and crops and the global temperature dropped above average. But the scientists warned that there are many volcanoes, dormant and unknown, that could erupt with such force.

“The risks to humanity are greater today,” the scientists warned. “Due to changes in the circulation of the oceans and the atmosphere caused by climate change, a major eruption in the tropics could cause in the next century a cooling that is 60 percent greater than the situation today.”

Because of this, the scientists recommend a series of steps to reduce the danger – improving the monitoring of volcanoes and gathering more comprehensive information, raising public awareness and increasing preparedness for a possible eruption, and developing capabilities to change the behavior of volcanoes and especially “manipulate the magma” despite the possible risks.

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