# What effect would a supervolcano have on America being a World Leader?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [March 15, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566 "2005-03-15T01:59:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Cynical\_Optimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cynical_Optimist)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/21 "2005-03-16T14:50:46Z")
I’m not too worried. I’ve got my PipBoy (well, a PDA is close enough), a pistol, several bottlecaps, and a sharp knife to skin geckos with. All I need to do is get my hands on a Gauss rifle & I’ll be all set. I’m not wearing a jumpsuit though.
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### Author:  [@GomiBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GomiBoy)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/22 "2005-03-16T15:52:30Z")
To put a straight response forward:
You’re talking about an event that would kill millions, destroy large parts of the agricultural heartland of the US, do untold damage to transportation networks and communications networks, disrupt air and ground travel from coast to coast, and would take trillions upon trillions of dollars to repair the damage from, not to mention gutting an entire population of farmers and ranchers in some of the most productive agricultural areas of the US.
I would think it would impact quite considerably on America being a world leader. I would think we would need about 20 years to lick our wounds and repair the damage before we would be anything like what we are now.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/23 "2005-03-16T16:38:26Z")
And of course, would depress the world agricultural production for years (though the addition of ash might actually enhance the soil once it all gets out of the atmosphere).
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### Author:  [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/24 "2005-03-16T16:57:58Z")
I’d suggest moving to New Zealand, except that under the vicinity of Lake Taupo is another supervolcano waiting to happen, though not as big as Yellowstone. Since it was only a few tens-of-thousands of years ago when that erupted, perhaps it would be safe for a while.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/25 "2005-03-16T18:07:26Z")
I have a plan…
_ **Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!** _
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/26 "2005-03-16T21:07:29Z")
> [@Cynical Optimist](#):
>
> I’m not too worried. I’ve got my PipBoy (well, a PDA is close enough), a pistol, several bottlecaps, and a sharp knife to skin geckos with.
Well, I guess after the apocalypse, why bother with car insurance?
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/27 "2005-03-17T03:35:48Z")
All kidding aside, humans in general have a hard time planning for rare events that cause large amounts of damage.
According to some studies done recently, a proper meteor detection system should save something like $100,000 for every $1 spent but because the event is so improbably small, nothing is being done about it.
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2005, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/28 "2005-03-18T11:30:11Z")
I need to get one thing straight: We’re talking about a huge natural disaster that would leave hundreds of thousands dead, enormous damage to the infrastructure and economy, years of privation and so on, and your major concern is whether the US of A would still be calling the shots in global politics? _Why?_
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### Author:  [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/29 "2005-03-18T17:16:29Z")
> [@Malacandra](#):
>
> I need to get one thing straight: We’re talking about a huge natural disaster that would leave hundreds of thousands dead, enormous damage to the infrastructure and economy, years of privation and so on, and your major concern is whether the US of A would still be calling the shots in global politics? _Why?_
Iraq and Afghanistan of course, duh. And the fact America is one of the biggest contributors to the global economy?
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/30 "2005-03-18T23:09:08Z")
> [@SteveG1](#):
>
> I don’t think any happened in human history, but just maybe there was at least a big honking volcano. There was a big volcanic event just about the time early humans began colonizing Europe and Asia. According to some geneticists, modern humans should have more genetic diversity than they have, based on how long humans have been around. By backtracking, they estimated some date which coincides with a big event in southeast Asia. According to them, it was the near extinction of humanity. My problem is, I can’t remember the details or the approximate date.
You’re talking about the “Toba catastrophe theory.” [http://www.andaman.org/book/app-r/ch5\_bottleneck/textr5.htm;](http://www.andaman.org/book/app-r/ch5_bottleneck/textr5.htm;) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba\_catastrophe\_theory:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory:)
> [@](#):
>
> Within the last three to five million years, after human and ape lineages diverged from the hominid stem-line, the human line produced a variety of human species. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, a massive volcanic eruption changed the course of human history by severely reducing the human population (called a ‘bottleneck’). **Around 75,000 years ago the Toba caldera in Indonesia erupted with a force three thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens.**
>
> According to Ambrose, this led to a decrease in the average global temperatures by as much as 15°C. This massive environmental change is believed to have created population bottlenecks in the various human species that existed at the time; this in turn accelerated differentiation of the isolated human populations, eventually leading to the end of all the other human species except for the branch that became modern humans (see volcanic winter).
>
> Some geological evidence and computed models support the plausibility of the Toba catastrophe theory, and genetic evidence suggests that all humans alive today, despite their apparent variety, are descended from a very small population (see mitochondrial Eve). Using the average rates of genetic mutation, some geneticists have estimated that this population lived at a time coinciding with the Toba event.
>
> According to this theory, after Toba, and when the climate and other factors permitted, humans once again fanned out from Africa migrating first to Indochina and Australia, and later to the Fertile Crescent and the Middle East. Migration routes to Asia created population centers in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and India. Divergences in skin color appeared, due to varied melanin levels, which were adaptations to the varying UV intensities around the world. Europe became populated by migrants from the Uzbekistan region when the last ice age ended and Europe began to be more hospitable.
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### Author:  [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-effect-would-a-supervolcano-have-on-america-being-a-world-leader/294566/31 "2005-03-19T15:36:25Z")
Brainglutton, as soon as I saw you mention Toba, I said “that’s the one”. You rule.
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