The Supervolcano in Arizona; The Silver Creek Caldera
Imagine 1,000 Mount Saint Helens volcanoes erupting simultaneously right next to each other, with each volcano erupting on the same order of magnitude as the famous 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. Although this figure serves as a minimum, this is exactly what occurred 18.8 million years ago east of Kingman and Oatman Arizona 18.8 million years ago. This supervolcano formed the Silver Creek Caldera and deposited thick layers of volcanic ash and rock across a vast area of California, Nevada, and Arizona.
Note: Much of the information in this video's description such as the size of the eruption, when it occurred, source caldera, and area the eruption covered is sourced from a paper by: Roche, O. et al. Slow-moving and far-travelled dense pyroclastic flows during the Peach Spring super-eruption. Nat. Commun. 7:10890 doi: 10.1038/ncomms10890 (2016). CC BY 4.0.
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Central photo of a volcano erupting is a frame grab/screenshot from a video (Filmed by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Don Swanson), (Produced by Liz Westby, Geologist, USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory), U.S. Geological Survey, Cascades Volcano Observatory, Public Domain, https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/mou...
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Source of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) methodology and criteria: Newhall, C. G., and Self, S. (1982), The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism, J. Geophys. Res., 87(C2), 1231–1238, doi:10.1029/JC087iC02p01231. Accessed / Read on Oct 5th, 2022 by / geologyhub .
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Sources/Citations:
[1] Roche, O. et al. Slow-moving and far-travelled dense pyroclastic flows during the Peach Spring super-eruption. Nat. Commun. 7:10890 doi: 10.1038/ncomms10890 (2016). CC BY 4.0.
[2] U.S. Geological Survey
[3] U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona Geologic Map, https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state...
[4] National Parks Service ((NPS Natural Resources) on Flickr)
[5] Ludington, Steve, Moring, Barry C., Miller, Robert J., Flynn, Kathryn S., Hopkins, Melanie J., and Haxel, Gordon A., 2005, Preliminary integrated databases for the United States - Western States: California, Nevada, Arizona, and Washington: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1305, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA.
0:00 United States Supervolcanoes
0:55 A Roadcut
1:48 Pyroclastic Flows
3:20 A Supervolcanic Eruption
4:12 Caldera Formation
4:31 Conclusion