Supervolcano: What if Yellowstone erupts?
Sunday 13th of March 2005 and Monday 14th March, BBC One 21:00 hrs – if you are in the UK, or can receive BBC One TV, mark your calendar or program your video recorder. This looks like a 2-part dramatisation which will be worth watching. Each program is followed by a documentary on the same subject at 22:00 hrs on BBC Two.
The programs look at what is likely to happen when Yellowstone next erupts – an event which appears to be overdue. The crater from the last super-eruption, 640,000 years ago, is large enough to fit Tokyo – the world’s biggest city – inside it.
The effects, say the authors, “could be sufficiently severe to threaten the fabric of civilisation” – putting events such as the Asian tsunami into the shade.
The fallout from a super-eruption could cause a “volcanic winter”, devastating global agriculture and causing mass starvation. It would have a similar effect to a 1.5km-diameter space rock striking Earth, they claim…
The TV drama, called Supervolcano, sticks closely to scientific understanding of these events. The plot revolves around a series of violent eruptions at Yellowstone in Wyoming that send thousands of cubic metres of rock, gas and ash spiralling up in cloud that rains down over three-quarters of the United States…
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