Is it true that a large enough volcanic reaction can cause major catasta- strahy across the world. can cause a world wide famine and the earth to go into total drkness? If this is true what volcanoe do you think is most likely to cause this? and do you have a prediction of when this might happen.

Tamrah

No, that isn't really true. The largest eruptions that we know of to have happened (such as the Yellowstone eruption about 2 million years ago) certainly caused a lot of ash to be thrown into the atmosphere and probably made life on Earth miserable for a few years, but this was before humans came along. Probably our most recent experience is from the 1815 eruption of Tambora. This eruption put enough material into the stratosphere that incoming sunlight was reduced by a few percent and the Earth's temperature dropped by 1-2 degrees. This was enough to make the weather bad (the following year, 1816 is called the "year without a summer"), and there was widespread famine in Indonesia where Tambora is, but the world recovered.

Sincerely,
Scott Rowland

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