Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology => Topic started by: SofiaSantiago on 31/01/2018 06:29:37
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Hey everyone :) I'm new here and I'm studying Geology in University in my final year. Today I went to my first Supervolcano after spending years upon years being absolutely fascinated by them, but where I live there is none so I'm on my holiday and I journeyed to New Zealand to check out Lake Taupo and it absolutely blew my mind. Honestly, to see the area and to imagine the earth swelling before bursting in utter catastrophy in an area as big as this lake is just breathtaking.
So I wanted to know if any of you have visited any amazing sites of either active or extinct super volcanoes? What are your recommendations for the next one for me to visit? I was thinking Lake Toba but keen to hear your thoughts.
Also is there any Youtube videos or channels you can recommend to me? I feel like I've exhausted every video and I'm wondering if there is a few hidden gems that I have missed out on.
I would LOVE to see any pictures you took of your time up in the caldera if you have some too!
Thankyou! :D Looking forward to actively being engaged with this community!
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New Zealand is pretty awesome for volcanoes - I spent a week in Auckland, and managed to climb 3 of the roughly 50 volcanoes that are in and around the city. But the last eruption here was 600 years ago.
Last year I visited Santorini, and was amazed by the thick layer of ash on the rim of the volcano, and the buried city of Akrotiri. This is much more volcanically active, with minor eruptions as recent as 1950.
I can also recommend a helicopter flight over the active shield volcano in Hawaii.
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Welcome to the forum!
I live in the Northeast US, so my recommendations are skewed, and may not align well with places that are easy for you to reach.
I would highly recommend visiting Iceland for some intimate observation of mind blowing geological phenomena. The whole island is transforming constantly, and the different parts of the island show different phenomena. In a single day you can visit active sulfur springs and geysers, traverse landscapes defined by how recently they were resurfaced by lava (my mind was totally blown seeing the bare rocks of the decades-old surface compared to the lichens of the centuries-old surface and the millennia-old surface covered in shrubs), see the continental divide between North America and Europe, which goes right through the island. The two plates are drifting apart (by something like 1 cm per year, I think). You can walk from one continent to the other, or you can even scuba dive in the trenches between them!
I would also highly recommend Yellowstone park in the Northwest of the US (another supervolcano).
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New Zealand is truly amazing, so many volcanoes on one island. I just wish my trip was longer, the supervolcano was a must for me, I visited a few other volcanoes but really I'd love to do a vacation just to see every single one of them!
Oh wow, thankyou so much for letting me know I actually haven't heard of Akrotiri, this is going to be a days worth of study on this now! It's another pompeii! Excellent suggestion, this is the stuff that gets me reading for hours on end... Truly incredible. Though I feel a bit sorry for the citizens. :P
Hawaii is definitely on my list! Along with Chimborazo in Ecuador. Though I don't think I'd be able to climb the whole thing haha. Have you been to Iceland ChiralSPO? I've only seen videos and read numerous articles about it.
A frozen tundra with incredible volcanic activity is definitely also in my to do list. I would love to branch into Volcanism and spend my life visiting and studying these incredible places.
I didn't realize you could see the continental divide between North America and Europe from there? I am literally writing these awesome suggestions on my infinitely long to-do list (which I shall complete before life's end).
Scuba diving between these sounds incredible...! Ugh, this is why I love geology. Seriously!
Yellowstone is definitely on the list! I've also got a few extinct super-volcanoes I want to visit! One of them surprisingly is in Australia, it was one of the largest eruptions the earth has ever experienced, it happened during the Devonian era
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Yes, I went to Iceland a in June 2014. One perk of going in mid June is that the sun never really sets, so we were able to fit in a 16-hour tour all in excellent daylight. Here is a picture I took at nearly midnight of the darkest it ever got:
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decades-old lava flow:
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centuries-old lava field (and perpetrator in background):
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continental divide (taken from European side, looking across the water to the American side):
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another "recent" lava flow:
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bubbling sulfurous mud pits as far as the eye could see:
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a few extinct super-volcanoes I want to visit! One of them surprisingly is in Australia
It surprises me too, and I live in Australia!
Where is it?
another pompeii!
The original Pompeii & Herculaneum lie on the outskirts of Naples.
I understand that there is a magma mass under Naples that could turn into a supervolcano (one day...).
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Welcome to the forum!
Being a Montana resident, I've spent years studying Yellowstone- fascinating place! It's one of the few places where a hot-spot erupts through continental material. My advice is to come visit Yellowstone, before it decides to come visit you!
I echo the sentiments on Hawaii, Iceland and would add the Galapagos as well. Another volcanic wonderland is the African rift.