Extinct supervolcano spanning 40 miles discovered beneath The Wash that could have wiped out humanity

British Geological Survey scientists have confirmed a 454 million-year-old supervolcano buried beneath The Wash estuary, spanning Norfolk and Lincolnshire, following analysis of microscopic zircon crystals from borehole samples taken 80 years ago. At least 65km across, the volcano blasted hundreds of cubic kilometres of crustal material high into the stratosphere with a force comparable to several thousand hydrogen bombs. Its ash reached Norway, Sweden, the Baltic states, Belarus and Poland, and researchers now believe it accounts for the long-puzzling Kinnekulle tephra deposits scattered across northern Europe.

BGS lead researcher Dr Tim Pharaoh said the volcano has been extinct for hundreds of millions of years, adding: 'Once it's gone extinct, that's it — nobody needs to worry.'

The eruption, one of the largest in recorded Earth history, predates the dinosaurs by roughly 200 million years; a blast of equivalent scale today would threaten human civilisation.

The breakthrough came when Covid-era lab restrictions prompted scientists to reanalyse archived core samples that had sat untouched in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire for decades.