supervolcano

plural supervolcanoes · plural supervolcanos

1. geographyA powerful volcano, often having an explosive or cataclysmic eruption.

   Sytau is rabidly volcanic; a dozen "supervolcanoes" 50-120 kilometers wide are erupting across the planet. Sytau's carbon content and constant volcanism make natural diamonds plentiful, if extremely costly and dangerous to recover.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Sytau

   2 more examples

   Mosaic of Olympus Mons on Mars. The supervolcano is nearly 600 kilometers wide at the base and 25 kilometers high and is capped by a crater 65 kilometers in diameter. It is about five times larger than the most massive volcanic cone on earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

   1983, Louis Berman, John C. Evans, Exploring the Cosmos, →ISBN, page 178

   The stone went dark, and instantly the supervolcano burst with an unthinkable blast. A miles-deep plug of dark and hot earth flew upward, followed by a tremendous expanding cloud. Swirling, dense substance spread and thickened [...]

   1984, Richard Monaco, Runes, →ISBN, page 64

   Synonyms: hypervolcano