Supervolcano could trigger apocalypse and wipe out all life on Earth

This is a frightening thought

A supervolcano is exactly what you'd guess - a really big volcano, however, they don't all look like you'd expect them to as some are more like giant craters.

The Calderas look like craters as opposed to cones but the likes of Mount St. Helens and Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull pale in comparison to the heat and seismic eruption of a caldera.

Supervolcanoes are seen by some as the most serious natural threat to our existence.

Eruptions involving the 20 known supervolcanoes occur very rarely, approximately once every 100,000 years.

It is thought that around 200 million years ago, a supervolcano erupted with such insistent energy that 75 percent of the species on the planet were eradicated.

It pulled apart North America and Africa and created the Atlantic Ocean.

It wasn't the lava or the volcanic ash that destroyed the environment but the pollution of the event; CO2 and carbon levels which imploded.

The environment struggled to recover and it was dinosaurs that eventually evolved before their own downfall.

One of the world's most famous is in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It has erupted three times in the past 2.1 million years and is still highly-active.

Scientists recently discovered that the caldera is 55 by 20 miles (89 by 32 kilometers), and 3 to 9 miles (5 to 14 kilometers) below the surface.

That means an eruption would likely be 25,000 times bigger than Mount St Helens.

Prior to an eruption, there would be a series of powerful earthquakes as magma raced to the Earth's surface, before a 'titanic eruption' spewed lava up to 40 miles (64km) away and sent ash and toxic gases hurtling skywards.

The gases, which would be released over a number of days, would hurtle 15 miles high and plunge the US into darkness and damage people's lungs.

The spread of volcanic ash would cause temperatures to plummet, making it hard to farm and in turn, lead to starvation worldwide.

However, scientists don't believe this will happen in our lifetime, or even our children's lifetime.

Other examples of supervolcanoes include Lake Toba in Indonesia, Lake Taupo in New Zealand, and the somewhat smaller Phlegraean Fields near Naples, Italy.