The Restless Earth: Super-volcanoes

Question 1

Super volcanoes are much…

Answer 1

Bigger than a standard volcano.

Question 2

Where are super volcanoes found?

Answer 2

Destructive plate boundaries.

Over parts of the mantle that are really hot.

Question 3

What are really hot places over the mantle where rocks melt called?

Answer 3

Hotspots.

Question 4

What place is on top of a super volcano?

Answer 4

Yellowstone National Park, USA.

Question 5

What is step 1 on how a hotspot is formed?

Answer 5

Magma rises up through cracks in the crust to form large magma basin below the surface.
Pressure of magma causes circular bulge on the surface.

Question 6

How big is the circular bulge on the surface?

Answer 6

Several kilometres wide.

Question 7

What is step 2 on how a hotspot is formed?

Answer 7

Bulge cracks, creating vents for lava to escape through.

Lava erupts out of vents causing earthquakes, sending up big plumes of ash/rock.

Question 8

What is step 3 on how a hotspot is formed?

Answer 8

Magma basin empties.

Bulge is no longer supported so it collapses.

Question 9

What happens when the bulge collapses?

Answer 9

More lava spews up.

Question 10

What is step 4 on how a hotspot is formed?

Answer 10

Eruption has finished there’s a big crater left where the bulge collapsed.

Question 11

What is the big crater called?

Answer 11

A caldera.

Question 12

What does the big crater sometimes get filled with?

Answer 12

Water to form a large lake.

Question 13

Name a lake which was formed from a big crater?

Answer 13

Lake Toba, Indonesia.

Question 14

Name 3 characteristic of a super volcano

Answer 14

Flat.
Covers a large area.
There is a caldera.

Question 15

Super volcanoes are flat unlike…

Answer 15

Normal volcanoes, which are mountains.

Question 16

The area of land they cover is…

Answer 16

Bigger than a normal volcano.

Question 17

Super volcanoes have a caldera unlike…

Answer 17

Normal volcanoes, where there’s just a crater at the top.

Question 18

When a super volcano erupts there will be…

Answer 18

A global consequence.

Question 19

An eruption of a super volcano hasn’t happened for how long?

Answer 19

Tens of thousands of years.

Question 20

When was the last super volcano to erupt?

Answer 20

Lake Toba super volcano.

74 000 years ago.

Question 21

What will a super volcano will throw out?

Answer 21

Thousands of cubic kilometres of rock, ash, lava.

Question 22

How much ash, lava and rock does a normal volcano throw out?

Answer 22

Couple of cubic kilometres.

Question 23

What will flow from the volcano?

Answer 23

Thick cloud of super-heated gas/ash that flows at high speeds.

Question 24

What does the thick cloud of super-heated gas/ash that flows at high speeds do?

Answer 24

Kills, burns and buries everything it touches.

Question 25

Everything within ______ will be destroyed

Answer 25

10 miles.

Question 26

What will the ash do shooting out from a super volcano?

Answer 26

Shoot kilometres in to the air.

Block out almost all daylight over whole continents.

Question 27

What can the blocking out of daylight do?

Answer 27

Trigger mini ice ages.

As less heat energy from the sun gets to the Earth.

Question 28

The ash will settle over…

Answer 28

Hundreds of square kilometres.

Burying fields and buildings