End of the World: Scientists Tell About Catastrophic Consequences of the Eruption of the Volcanic Chain “Ring of Fire”

While this is almost certainly impossible, if the entire volcanic chain were to erupt at once, the consequences would be catastrophic, writes the Daily Mail.

The Ring of Fire contains more than 425 volcanoes, representing 75% of all active volcanic features on Earth. It includes some of the world's largest volcanoes, such as Mount St. Helens in the United States, Mount Fuji in Japan, and Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait.

Professor Valentin Troll, a volcanologist at Uppsala University, told the Daily Mail that the effects of these combined eruptions range from "local ash falls and associated infrastructure problems to air traffic problems and long-term climate problems due to the large amounts of particles emitted into the atmosphere."

Professor Troll adds: "If this were to happen, which is unlikely at the moment, it could take the form of a volcanic winter for several years after the eruptions."

Can an earthquake trigger a volcanic eruption? Scientists are just beginning to understand the link between volcanic activity and earthquakes, writes the Daily Mail. However, in recent years, geologists have found a number of cases where earthquakes appear to have triggered volcanic eruptions. Volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire, where one tectonic plate pushes against another, allowing magma to rise from the Earth's liquid mantle. When this magma rises into the volcano's magma chamber, trapped gases are compressed to enormous pressures, which are released during an eruption.

Scientists now believe that strong earthquakes could create new vents for more magma to fill the chamber, or disturb these gas bubbles, increasing the chance of an eruption.

Professor Troll says: "Seismic shock waves can travel from the epicentre of an earthquake for many hundreds or thousands of kilometres and can thus shake up volcanoes and volcanic systems that are already close to eruption. This in turn can lead to an increase in the frequency of volcanic activity in the affected regions."

While more evidence is needed to be certain, some experts believe this may have already happened after an earthquake struck Russia last Wednesday.

Data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) showed the earthquake struck about 84 miles east-southeast of Kamchatka, Russia, at about 7:24 p.m. ET, making it the sixth-strongest earthquake on record.

Soon after, observers noted explosive activity and lava flows flowing from the western slopes of Klyuchevskoy volcano in Kamchatka.

Located about 280 miles north of the regional capital of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Klyuchevskoy Sopka is one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, standing at 15,584 feet in Russia's Kamchatka Krai.

Dr Morgan Jones, a volcano expert at Umea University in Sweden, told the Daily Mail: "Klyuchevskoy is a volcano that erupts regularly and the ground deformation could well have destabilised the magma chamber."

What would happen if all the volcanoes in the Ring of Fire erupted at once? The idea, writes the Daily Mail, suggests that a strong enough seismic event could release enough energy to destabilise magma chambers across the Ring of Fire.

If this were to happen, the consequences would be catastrophic for both those in the immediate vicinity of the volcano and the entire world.

Volcanic eruptions are classified according to the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), where a VEI value of one results in the release of 10,000 cubic meters of material into the air. Each subsequent number corresponds to the release of 10 times that amount of material from the explosion.

The largest eruption ever recorded, with a VEI of 7, was the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, when 160 cubic kilometers of material were ejected into the atmosphere and the explosion was heard over 2,600 km away.

Over the past 10,000 years, there have been only 13 eruptions with an eruption rate of seven; 11 of these occurred in the Ring of Fire.

If the Ring of Fire were to erupt, people living around the world would be affected by eruptions of this magnitude. Anyone living near these eruptions would be at risk from falling rocks, toxic gases, deadly landslides, and raging pyroclastic flows.

Given that the Ring of Fire runs through 15 countries, these eruptions would undoubtedly have extremely destructive local effects.

However, the longer-term and more dangerous effects will be felt on a global scale, the Daily Mail states. When volcanoes erupt, they release huge amounts of sulphur and dust into the upper atmosphere, which can block out the sun for years after the initial explosion.

After Mount Tambora erupted, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere dropped by 0.5°C, causing a "year without a summer." If the entire Ring of Fire had erupted, the results would have been even more dramatic.

Professor Troll said: "I would expect the effects to be felt within two to five years, with average temperatures falling by perhaps 1C. Summers would be wet and cold, and crops would grow poorly for several years. In Europe we would likely export hunger by buying food from other countries, but in less favoured areas hunger could be a consequence."

However, it would not be the most severe climate disaster the world has ever faced, and would probably not lead to human extinction.

Dr Jonathan Paul, an Earth scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, told the Daily Mail: "If - and this is crucial - all the volcanoes around the Ring of Fire erupted at the same time, the resulting ash is unlikely to cause a global winter. By comparison, the global winter that wiped out the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago was caused by a meteorite impact that released several trillion times more energy than any one volcano on the Ring of Fire."

Luckily, the chances of this ever happening in reality are virtually zero, the Daily Mail notes. This is partly because an earthquake would have to be of absolutely apocalyptic proportions to trigger eruptions across the entire Ring of Fire.

Dr Paul said: "The Ring of Fire is huge, while the immediate effects of the earthquake are localised to about 100km."

There have been three or four earthquakes of this magnitude in the last 100 years, but they have only rarely affected volcanoes located very close to the source.

Professor Lisa McNeil, an expert in plate tectonics at the University of Southampton, told the Daily Mail: "There have been a number of large earthquakes around the world in the last 20 years and they have not caused any major volcanic eruptions. On average, an earthquake of the magnitude of the Kamchatka earthquake or greater happens about every 10 years and even if we go back a few hundred years, there have been no very large volcanic eruptions."

Furthermore, not every volcano is on the verge of failure, which can be triggered by a seismic event. Volcanic activity requires months, if not years, for the magma chambers to build up enough pressure to erupt.

Therefore, scientists believe that earthquakes can only trigger an eruption if the volcano is in a state close to an eruption. For example, Klyuchevskoy volcano had actually been actively erupting for several months before the earthquake that may have triggered the latest activity, writes the Daily Mail.

"The earthquake triggered the actual eruption, but it could still have happened in the coming days, weeks or months," says Professor McNeil.

This means that there is absolutely no scenario in which all the volcanoes along the Ring of Fire could erupt at the same time, no matter how strong the earthquake was.