Do major volcanic eruptions have the force to eject debris into outer space?
Asked by
Ltryptophan (
12091)
August 21st, 2022
from iPhone
When a volcano erupts does it push any rock, or other material out into space?
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5 Answers
Offhand I’d say no.
I think the highest altitude any ejecta have reached is about 36 miles, which is only the second atmospheric layer, the stratosphere.
The ejecta would have to travel another 336 miles just to reach the exospheric floor.
An object is not in outer space until it leaves the exosphere, which would be about 6,200 miles above Earth.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html
Possibly. Of course, without speed and direction to attain orbit, the debris would fall back to Earth.
On Aug. 27, 1883, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatau, a small island in Indonesia. Heard 3000 miles away, the explosion threw 5 cubic miles of Earth 50 miles into the sky, created 120 foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.
The volcano split by 6 feet to await the next eruption which will complete the split, sink ½ the island and create another huge tsunami.
(The International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 250 miles.)
No, as material would have to be travelling at around 25,000 miles per hour to escape the Earth and the ejected material would immediately be slowed down due to friction. The ash cloud over Krakatoa climbed to a height of 50 miles due to heat and convection rather than the speed of ejection.
Probably not without another source of acceleration. It would have to be one hell of an explosion. Projectiles from a volcano, like a gun just have an initial impulse. If this was a thing, we would likely have found historical evidence of it.
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