Click image to watch 60 Minutes report on Volcanoes
It may seem like we are far away from volcanic eruptions out here in the United States, but we can assure you we’re not. Other parts of the world have experienced recent volcanoes, which has caused a chain reaction to the population that lives near, as well as the countries nearby it. Right now, there are about 1,500 active volcanoes across the globe, some on the verge of eruption as we type.
60 Minutes went out to explore three of them, one in Iceland, another in Italy and one closer to home, at Yellowstone National Park. Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland erupted in 2010, while the Vesuvius volcano in Italy can cause the most damage to people, considering there are millions of inhabitants that reside around the mountain. As for Yellowstone? That’s a brewing monster (super volcano) that can change our earth as we know it.
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Although Yellowstone National Park hasn’t erupted in 400,000 years, there’s still a chance the 50 mile radius area may blow soon. How soon is a toss up. It may not happen in our lifetime, but it’s on the verge. Scientists can only predict when volcanoes will erupt, weeks (or sometimes just days) in advance, but nothing sooner.
The catastrophic repercussions of those eruptions can be as deadly as Pompeii in 79 AD or something more lightweight, like the Indonesian Tambora volcano eruption, which caused “the year without Summer” in America.
Either way, it’s something to be aware of. Not to mention, watching Scott Pelley in the thick of a volcanic eruption was something extraordinary.