Supervolcano (docudrama)

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Supervolcano
Scientists know it as the deadliest volcano on Earth. You know it...as Yellowstone
Directed by	Tony Mitchell
Produced by	Sara Cropley Victoria Goodall Michael Mosley Ailsa Orr Fiona Scott Rosie Taylor
Written by	Edward Canfor-Dumas Julian Simpson
Starring	Michael Riley Gary Lewis Shaun Johnston Adrian Holmes Jennifer Copping Rebecca Jenkins
Distributed by	BBC (UK) Discovery Channel
Release date(s)	March, 2005 (UK)
Running time	115 min.
Language	English
Budget	Unknown
IMDb profile

Supervolcano is a two-part docudrama centered around the fictional eruption of the volcanic caldera of Yellowstone National Park.

[edit] Explanation

The name of the program, Supervolcano, refers to the unusually explosive nature of the Yellowstone caldera. Current research indicates that the Yellowstone supervolcano has erupted several times in the past, covering much of present-day North America with ash. Scientists believe the supervolcano will erupt again sometime in the future, and judging from the observed pattern of previous events, the next eruption is actually overdue.

The program, aired on both the BBC and The Discovery Channel (and then later on UKTV History), intersperses a storyline about a hypothetical eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano and interviews with actual scientists. It was also accompanied by a two-part factual documentary, discussing the scientific and sociological effects that would occur during and after an actual eruption.

Three eruptions classified as a "Mega-colossal" on the Volcanic Explosivity Index have occurred in Yellowstone and each had a major impact on the earth and its climate. The eruption of Lake Toba 71,500 ± 4000 years ago was also VEI 8 and, according to the Toba catastrophe theory, had a major impact on humans and human evolution by reducing the total human population to between 1,000 and 10,000 individuals thereby creating a population bottleneck. Some experts believe an eruption on a similar scale is due within the next 25,000 years, some of those saying that Yellowstone is the most likely candidate for such an eruption. However, experts caution that super-colossal eruptions are too infrequent for a sufficiently robust trend to be established so that the occurrence of future events can be predicted.