Did You Know Maine Is Sitting On Top A Bunch Of Super Volcanoes?
Jason Stewart
Jason Stewart Updated: November 26, 2021
Photo by Yosh Ginsu on Unsplash
Once upon a time, long, long ago....
Ha. You get the idea. It all happened a mere 420+ million years ago, but once upon a time, Maine actually had some of the biggest volcanoes anywhere. They also produced some of the biggest eruptions in history, the likes of which man has never witnessed. Because, you know, man wasn't here yet...
As the East Coast was forming, there was a series of mega-eruptions that caused massive deposits of lava and ash up and down the coast, according to LiveScience.com. The most visible example is Isle au Haut in Acadia National Park. After its eruption, it left thick, immense piles of volcanic debris, which has since turned into rock, obviously.
We're not talking thin crust pizza here.
Those volcanic layers on Isle au Haut are over three miles (!) deep, with a layer of ash on top that is more than 3,200 feet thick. So this explosion caused enough material to be displaced in this one region, so as to cause a nearly 4-mile thick crust on the earth! That's the equivalent of driving from one side of Bangor to the other side of Veazie.
Now, these volcanoes are dormant, meaning they have basically no chance of erupting. In fact, on Isle au Haut, the volcano's magma chamber is laying on its side. And over millions of years, tectonic shifts have pushed the supervolcanoes apart and exposed most of their leftovers, as opposed to secretly waiting to explode as some speculate may happen at Yellowstone someday.
So please... don't start calling your insurance company and try to get volcano eruption insurance. We're going to be fine. But the fact is, Maine's volcanoes pretty much could've taken out the whole United States as we know it. That just lends credence to how awesome we are. Why? Volcanoes!
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Source: Did You Know Maine Is Sitting On Top A Bunch Of Super Volcanoes?