Mount Pelee
Known to be the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The people of the Martinique island saw the warning signs of an eruption and decided to flee to a neighboring island. However, the politicians were concerned about their elections and forbid anyone from leaving until the elections were over. Unfortunately the volcano erupted before the elections started and killed over 30,000 people. The only known people to survive were 2 criminals who were protected from the volcanic ash etc because of their jail cells.
Pompeii
August 24th 79 A.D.
It all lasted 19 hours. Mount Vesuvius erupted and The people of pompeii tried to escape, they collected anything important to them and most of them head for the sea. However, being so close to the volcano they were all enveloped in the pyroclastic flow and nearly all 5,000 citizens were instantly killed due to the thermal shock. Then, there was only a long, deathly silence. Pompeii lay buried for nearly 1,700 years. It wasn’t until 1748 that archaeologists began slowly uncovering the ancient city, preserved under 9 feet of volcanic ash.
the fourth important impact comes from the fact that 1. the ash blocks out alot of sunlight (even in the middle of the day it can be pitch black) 2. any plants are likely to get covered with ash so that when the sun does reach that part of the earth again, the plants cant photosynthesize and then die. 3. all the animals that rely on said plants die as well from ash inhalation and starvation.
this last impact is the most important when it comes to how super volcanoes might end the world.
The third most dangerous part might not be immediately noticed, the danger comes from the fact that inhaling the ash at all is very harmful because it is composed of very silica rich minerals which gives it a glass like structure, so the ash can microscopically rip up your lungs.
The second most dangerous part comes from the cloud of ash and gas that come from the actual eruption and reach up to 95,000ft. into the air. Most of this ash lingers in the air and is carried all over the world, with most of it landing closer to the surrounding area of the volcano.
why you might ask are volcanoes so dangerous?
The initial danger comes from the lava itself along with the gas and ash that collapse on themselves down the sides of the volcano. The Lava is dangerous for obvious reasons and the gas and ash can travel at speeds of 100-300 kph. This almost instantly kills everything within a few miles of the volcano. For super volcanoes this distance reaches that maximum of 1000 cu. ft.
A super volcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers. This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Super volcanoes can occur when magma in the earth rises into the crust from a hotspot but is unable to break through the crust. Pressure builds in a large and growing magma pool until the crust is unable to contain the pressure. They can also form at convergent plate boundaries and continental hotspot locations.
So im going to cover super volcanoes today since im learning about volcanoes in my geology class :)
A common belief is that the main reason technology could take over would be due to artificial intelligence. Scientists believe that by 2040 machines will match human intelligence, and perhaps human consciousness. Then they’ll get even better. They envision an eventual symbiotic relationship between human and machine, with the two merging into “postbiologicals” capable of vastly expanding their intellectual power.
The last experiment is my personal favorite and includes the use of nano technology (remember back to how we could create nanobots to create zombies). The same concept applies, there are alot of uses for nanobots, but they are only useful if there are trillions of them. How do you get trillions of nanobots? Well program them to create more of themselves, so they can “reproduce” just like any other organism. However giving them this power could be dangerous. Can you imagine a virus that is nearly as smart as humans and knows just how to destroy you from the inside out?
