Are we being reckless? There is a one-in-six chance of a world-altering eruption this century, claims an alarming new study. Now, a leading volcanologist says humanity is ‘woefully’ unprepared.
World at risk from huge volcano, says study
Are we being reckless? There is a one-in-six chance of a world-altering eruption this century, claims an alarming new study. Now, a leading volcanologist says humanity is 'woefully' unprepared.
2022 was not a happy new year in TongaAn archipelago of islands and Polynesian kingdom in the South Pacific. . In December, an underwater volcano called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai erupted near the island nation, sending a huge plume of vapour into the sky. It continued rumbling for weeks. By the middle of January, the worst seemed to have passed.
But then the volcano erupted again. This time, the blast was seven times more powerful than the first. The plume rose to a record breaking 58 kilometres. The boom could be heard 10,000 kilometres away in Alaska. It caused a tsunamiA Japanese word describing a succession of waves caused when an earthquake or volcano displaces a large body of water., which swamped parts of Tonga.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai was a rare magnitude 5On the Volcanic Explosivity Index, which measures the size of eruptions based on size and intensity from 0 to 8. Each level is 10 times more powerful than the previous. There has not been a magnitude 8 eruption since 26500 BC. volcano. According to NASA, it was hundreds of times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
But some now believe that an even bigger burst is on the way. Scientists have identified a one-in-six chance that a magnitude 7 or 8 volcano will occur this century. This would be 10 to 100 times larger than January's disaster.
Super-volcanoes have the potential to change the entire world. The last one happened in 1815. Tambora, in Indonesia, killed 100,000 people. The ash released lowered the Earth's average temperature by a degree. There were crop failures and flooding across the planet.
A similar eruption would be devastating. Yet according to volcanologist Michael Cassidy, little has been done to prepare. He says: "There is no coordinated action, nor large-scale investment, to mitigate the global effects of large-magnitude eruptions." For Cassidy, this behaviour is reckless.
Others says that there is only so much we can do. The human race faces hundreds of challenges. Some, such as climate change, are predictable and understandable. Volcanoes are uncertain by comparison and even harder to mitigate. If we spend all our lives focusing on every potential disaster, there will be no time to do anything else.
<h5 class=" eplus-wrapper" id="question">Are we being reckless?</h5>
Yes: Millions of people have witnessed the ruins of Pompeii first-hand. We have had almost 2,000 years to work out how to prevent similar devastation. That we have not is extreme carelessness.
No: No one can ignore the threat volcanoes pose. But given the many problems we face and the unpredictability of volcanic activity, it is inevitable that more immediate concerns come first.
Or... Short of removing whole populations from volcanic regions and resettling them elsewhere, there is very little we can do that lessens the effect of a volcano. We should focus on what we can change.
Tonga - An archipelago of islands and Polynesian kingdom in the South Pacific.
Tsunami - A Japanese word describing a succession of waves caused when an earthquake or volcano displaces a large body of water.
Magnitude 5 - On the Volcanic Explosivity Index, which measures the size of eruptions based on size and intensity from 0 to 8. Each level is 10 times more powerful than the previous. There has not been a magnitude 8 eruption since 26500 BC.
World at risk from huge volcano, says study

Glossary
Tonga - An archipelago of islands and Polynesian kingdom in the South Pacific.
Tsunami - A Japanese word describing a succession of waves caused when an earthquake or volcano displaces a large body of water.
Magnitude 5 - On the Volcanic Explosivity Index, which measures the size of eruptions based on size and intensity from 0 to 8. Each level is 10 times more powerful than the previous. There has not been a magnitude 8 eruption since 26500 BC.