CompuServe Messages

Scott, Volcanology was an interest of mine a few years ago, but unfortunately, right now I don't have any good references on it. I do know that one of the largest eruptions of recent geologic times was the series of blasts that destroyed Mount Mazama in Oregon. It's estimated that the Mazama eruption produced 50-70 cubic kilometers of ejecta. How much did the 1815 Tamboro eruption produce? There was another titanic eruption, largely of light ash, several million years ago, again in the Cascades. We know about that one mainly because of a unique fossil find in Idaho or Montana, a large number of mammals that were apparently killed by volcanic ash when they were gathered around a water hole. There was a big article about that in National Geographic sometime in the early 80s, maybe 1981 or '82. Other biggies: Krakatoa produced a lot of noise, but I don't know how much ejecta. There was a volcanic island in the eastern Mediterranean (Thera, now called Santorin) that exploded about 1500 BC with such force that it atomized the island, almost destroyed Minoan Crete, wrought havoc all over the Med., Asia Minor, and northern Africa, and quite possibly was the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis. All that's left of Thera today is a caldera with an area of about eighty square kilometers. Jon W.