Supervolcano eruption could wipe the USA off the map and kill five billion around the world, geologist sensationally warns
Supervolcano eruptions are rare, and occur approximately every 50,000 years
A SUPERVOLCANO eruption could wipe the US off the map and kill five billion people around the world, a geologist boldly warned.
Dr Jerzy Zaba, a geologist at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, said the mass explosion is completely unavoidable.
Dr Zaba told : “I predict an eruption similar to the one from 640,000 years ago would destroy most of the United States.
“The erupted materials would cover everything within a 500km radius with a metre-thick layer. And due to the emission, of dust, gases or sulphur monoxides into the atmosphere, we would witness a cooling of the climate.
“I estimate, due to the effects of climate change, around five billion people would die from hunger.”
Although Dr Zaba did not predict when the terrifying eruption might happen, he urged a full-scale evacuation of the US if there are signs an eruption is to happen in the near-future.
Supervolcano eruptions are rare, and occur approximately every 50,000 years.
The last supervolcano eruption happened in Indonesia 74,000 years ago, and suggests the planet might be overdue the next one.
There are around 40 supervolcanos in the world, with most of them being extinct.
Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, has experienced three supervolcanic eruptions in the ancient past.
The first one was 2.1 million years ago, the second 1.3 million years ago and the most recent was 640,000 years ago.
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A Yellowstone eruption would eject more than 2,000 million tonnes of sulphuric acid, causing a veil to form around the earth that blocks sunlight.
This will then trigger a catastrophic volcanic winter.
There have been many recent scares over Yellowstone erupting, after a worrying new thermal danger zone was spotted in the National Park.
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