What If All Volcanoes Erupted At The Same Time

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]What if every volcano on Earth erupted simultaneously tonight?

[00:00:04]There are over 1,500 active volcanoes on land, but here's what most people don't know. Scientists estimate there are another 10,000 volcanic systems on the ocean floor alone. Most have never been fully mapped. If they all went at once, the first thing that kills you isn't lava. It's the sky.

[00:00:25]Within 48 hours, volcanic [music] ash and sulfur dioxide would begin blocking sunlight across entire continents.

[00:00:33]Geologists call this a volcanic winter.

[00:00:35][music] Global temperatures drop by 10 to 15 degrees Celsius within weeks, not years.

[00:00:42]Agriculture collapses within one growing season. That means the global food supply runs out in roughly 18 months.

[00:00:50]But here's the number that should terrify you most.

[00:00:54]252 million years ago, a mass volcanic event called the Great Dying triggered conditions similar to this. The result?

[00:01:03]96% of all marine species and 70% of all land species [music] went extinct. It is the single largest extinction event in Earth's history.

[00:01:13]Scientists call it the Great Dying for a reason.

[00:01:16]We've never fully recovered from it.

[00:01:18]And that was before 8 billion humans needed feeding.

[00:01:22]Could we survive round two?