Supervolcanoes

It is a volcanic disaster that could occur at any moment, but has no recorded instances of it happening in human history. Currently, volcanologists recognize 7-9 supervolcanoes worldwide. If a super-eruption were to occur, this could have catastrophic consequences, including ash clouds, a year without summer, failed harvests and widespread hunger.

Supervolcanoes are volcanoes that score at least an 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), which is determined by the height of the ash column and the volume of tephra ejected during the explosive silicic eruption. For context, the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 scored a VEI-4, and the eruption that destroyed Pompeii scored a VEI-5. 

Fortunately, the likelihood of one of these volcanoes erupting is very low. The last super-eruption was around 25.500 years ago, and specialists keep close track of these supervolcanoes and their likelihood of erupting. One such scientist is Elske van Dalfsen, who is the only volcanologist at The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). In this lecture, she will explain what makes (super)volcanoes dangerous and how she conducts her research using geodesy - the science of measuring and understanding the Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravity field.  

Dr. Elske van Dalfsen monitors the volcanoes on the Dutch islands of Saba and St Eustatius at the KNMI. She is also a researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning at TU Delft, where she works on microgravity measurements.

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