How much power did it create in the big explosion?

Devin

Dear Devin,

There are estimates of the energy released by volcanoes. The energy is released in the form of heat, explosive energy, and earthquakes. Macdonald (1972) reported that the 1952 eruption of Kilauea (136 days at a lava lake) gave off 43,000,000,000,000,000 calories in heat energy. That is the same as 1,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ergs of work. Macdonald converted this to an equivalent amount of electrical energy. It would be one fifteenth of the total power consumed in the US (in 1960!) or two fifths of the power production of the entire U.S. during the period of the eruption.

The 1815 eruption at Tambora, the largest eruption in historical time, released 840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ergs of energy, about 400 times more than the Kilauea eruption.

Steve Mattox, University of North Dakota

Sources of Information:
Macdonald, G.A., 1972, Volcanoes: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 510 p.

Yokoyama, I., 1957, Energetics in active volcanoes. 2nd paper: Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute Bulletin, v. 35, p. 75-97.

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