This fantastic scenario is the subject of Dr Clive Oppenheimer’s lecture Eruptions that shook the world on March 13 at this year’s Cambridge Science Festival. The Festival is the UK’s biggest free science festival and this year runs from March 12-25.
In constructing this Hollywood-like disaster Dr Oppenheimer, of the University of Cambridge’s Geography Department, theorizes that Man’s progress can be aided when faced with catastrophe.
Three case-studies of severe volcanic activity are closely examined. The 1815 Mount Tambora eruption in Indonesia, the Laki eruption on Iceland in 1783, and the Toba catastrophe that occurred over 73,000 years ago are all events that caused significant fallout throughout the globe, impacting people’s lives for years after the eruption. The Toba catastrophe in particular, and the climate change it caused, may have had a devastating effect on early man.
In analysing these three events, Dr Oppenheimer hopes to uncover clues to the impact of future eruptions. Tokyo, Naples, and the Super Volcano that resides under Yellowstone National Park in America are three potentially deadly sites that Dr Oppenheimer examines. The impact of their eruptions promises to be severe. Ash and sulphur emitted from these eruptions would cause a global crisis. Extreme weather in the summer and winter months would have catastrophic results. Global food security and high energy prices would cripple the delicate global economy and threaten to plunge us into very challenging times.
See the image library and read the full story
Image: Eruptions that shook the world Credit: Clive Oppenheimer
Eruptions that shook the world is scheduled for 13 March at Mill Lane lecture Rooms, Mill Lane at 6pm.
Further information on the Science Festival is available at http://www.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival/
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
________________________________________