The Supervolcano in Namibia; Messum Crater

The site of one of Earth's largest single explosive volcanic eruptions to have ever occurred is located in an often forgotten about patch of desert. Here, Messum Crater represents the remains of this ancient long extinct supervolcano which erupted all the way back during the early Cretaceous period. This video will briefly discuss this massive caldera, which is sometimes incorrectly mistaken as an impact crater.

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Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image:

Sources/Citations:
[2] Milner, Simon C. and Anthony Ewart. “The geology of the Goboboseb Mountain volcanics and their relationship to the Messum Complex, Namibia.” (2014).
[3] Ewart, A. & MILNER, S. & Armstrong, Richard & Duncan, A.. (1998). Etendeka Volcanism of the Goboboseb Mountains and Messum Igneous Complex, Namibia. Part I: Geochemical Evidence of Early Cretaceous Tristan Plume Melts and the Role of Crustal Contamination in the Parana-Etendeka CFB. Journal of Petrology. 39. 10.1093/petroj/39.2.191.
Note: This source was used to estimate the temperature in ancient northern Namibia 130 million years ago.

0:00 Messum Crater
1:24 Flood Basalts
2:22 Volcanic Progression
3:05 Major Eruptions

[TheSpaceEnthusiast-vlwx]

YAY! The Parana-Etendaka traps have finally been covered! Thank you so much, Geology Hub! The Parana-Etendaka traps were the site of several possible supereruptions. One of these supereruptions is known as the Guarapuava-Tamarana-Sarusas superuption, which might have had a volume of >8, 600 cubic kilometers! The Guarapuava-Tamarana-Sarusas superuption was even stated to have been the largest explosive eruption in Earth's history by a research paper! However, both that supereruption and the supereruption covered in the video may have been produced by multiple events, vents, or volcanoes. The supereruptions in the Parana-Etendaka traps might even have had an effusive origin, but these eruptions are nonetheless still interesting!
The Guarapuava-Tamarana-Sarusas superuption's deposits were able to flow in a ductile manner after their emplacement. This creates a rock type that is a variant of ignimbrite: rheoignimbrite or rheomorphic ignimbrite!
I think the probable supereruptions in the Parana-Etendaka traps may demonstrate that Large Igneous Provinces could also produce large, silicic explosive eruptions, but I am only a layperson, so please ask geologists such as Geology Hub about this topic.

[digitaldreamer]

It’s getting to the point that nothing surprises us anymore but I am certain that there is a lot more to learn from this planet as technology advances…🤔

[jakebrookesactor]

Because I’m intensely interested in geology/volcanic eruption‘s, watching your videos helps me to forget about all the troubles in the world.👍🏻🌋

[ZebaKnight]

Yikes! As you described the repeated eruptions, I kept thinking each huge event was the last. When the numbers get this high (amount of ash, height of the ash cloud, radius of the extent of the pyroclastic flows, etc.) my mind boggles. It helps to have the satellite images of the aftermath of these astonishing events. Thanks as always, for this fascinating video.

[TheMajesticSeaPancake]

Insane to me how long ago something like this happened, in that it's so rare to have that size, yet we had Toba which was the first one to get so close to that size, so recently. Just that the odds of something so significant to our planets history, that rarely happens at all, by chance intersected with the short time humans have been around.

[kenwaldron]

My daughter loves volcanoes and dinosaurs and what not I show her your videos and loves them too. She’s definitely smarter than I was when I was ten.

[marthinus.x]

Wonderful seeing Namibia on your channel.

[lineinthesand]

Ta the video.
There are other fossil volcanic edifices in Namibia associated with the ~129 MaBP (Lower Cretaceous) Western Gondwana breakup; the Brandberg and the Erongo Complexes as well as the offshore CapeCross and Cape Seal Complexes and the Phoenix Volcanic Field, to mention a few.
All the best, from an exploration geologist in Windhoek.

[eliscanfield]

Kind of crazy to think that this enormous volcano's hot spot now feeds so small (comparatively speaking) a volcano.

[outlawbillionairez]

Our crust (Lithosphere)we stand on is about 30 miles thick. Atmosphere is 12 miles. Highest sky dive.. 24 miles. When you see him drop, you're looking at how thick the crust is.

[jenkcomedy]

This was tasty. I'd love more videos like this!!! TY

[jantjarks]

2:54 - Ah thanks, that's where I left my bulldozer.

~Cheers, Atlas

[Apq-hi]

3:38 I see your illustration of the formation of a supervolcano caldera initially as a stratovolcano. Is it possible that some of today's supervolcano calderas were once stratovolcanoes like in your illustration?

[tiffanymarie]

What YouTube has taught me is biologists are goofy, physicists are chill, chemists are psychotic and geologists are ridiculously confident.

[And-ljgb]

Since this is type of event is frequently mentioned on this channel: I wonder, if a similar head of a new mushroom shaped mantle plume would be to reach a surface today and create new flood basalt event, how long in advance would we know about that?

[Seattle_Kiwi]

Very cool you can see this because of the area’s climate.

[KillberZomLD]

Now this is a true supervolcano, its eruption bigger than Wah Wah Spring.

[plumtree]

At 2:00, could you revisit Tristan da Cunha in the future? That was a lot of information to process so quickly. Was it a hot spot and a spreading zone at the same time? Is it similar to Iceland today? Thanks.

[alfredbirnfeldt]

Why is this caldera so recognizable and well-preserved today after so many millions of years? The Chicxulub crater is a lot newer, yet its rim is completely gone. Even Yellowstone's caldera is somewhat hard to notice on satellite despite being absurdly more recent compared to this one.

[EraX]

Can you do a video next on the Aogashima volcano in Japan