However, while the volcano undoubtedly produced at least one huge-scale eruption, some experts don't think there is enough evidence for the structure to be called a supervolcano.
In a recent analysis, published April 29 in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, scientists examined zircon crystals that were taken 80 years ago from boreholes 40 miles (65 kilometers) apart in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Zircon crystals are smaller than the diameter of a human hair and form within molten magma underground before a volcano erupts. They contain uranium that decays into lead isotopes at a known rate, enabling researchers to precisely date eruptions.
The Kinnekulle tephra is visible next to train track north of Oslo in Norway. Dipping strata of the Arnestad Formation (Late Ordovician) contain thin beds of gray-green altered volcanic ash. (Image credit: © Tim Pharaoh)
Researchers already knew that the Kinnekulle tephra was formed during a massive volcanic eruption. But the recent analysis shows for the first time how far the ash traveled and, therefore, how big the eruption really was.
However, while the explosion would have been impressive and equivalent to the force of thousands of atomic bombs, experts said the definition of a supervolcano is vague and there are better ways to describe what happened.
Ultraplinian eruptions are the most violent type of volcanic explosions, ejecting more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic kilometers) of material. It's difficult to say exactly what the eruption that formed the Kinnekulle tephra would have looked like, but it likely lasted days to weeks and formed ash clouds taller than 25 miles (40 km) that reached into the stratosphere.
Stephen Self, a physical volcanologist at the University of California, Berkeley, agreed that the term supervolcano can be too vague. "Supervolcano has become a kind-of buzz-word," he told Live Science in an email. "It's the deposits of the eruptions that are recognized, not the volcano."
The location of one of the borehole samples studied, at North Creake in Norfolk. (Image credit: © Tim Pharaoh)
Similarly, the Kinnekulle tephra has been degraded over time, Poland said.
RELATED STORIESThe researchers also found evidence for an earlier eruption of the volcano that occurred 453.7 million years ago. However, there is no trace of these eruptions at the surface today; the boreholes are located in some of England's flattest landscapes, study first author Tim Pharaoh, a geophysicist with the British Geological Survey, said in a statement in August.
"It's best not to imagine whole preserved volcanoes, but rather that we have deposits from their eruptions, or rocks which formed in the magma reservoirs beneath the original volcano," Rowley said. "These are often deformed and altered by tectonic events meaning that it takes some careful geological investigation to interpret the true picture."
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