Could the Disaster from Hulu’s ‘Paradise’ Happen in Maine, New Hampshire, & Massachusetts?

I am going to start this article off by warning you that it will be SPOILER HEAVY.  If you have not seen the Hulu series 'Paradise', and you plan to watch it without spoilers, you are going to want to stop reading now.

Of course, if you have seen it already or you just don't care about spoilers, keep reading.

The new Hulu series, which hit the streaming service in January, centers around a Secret Service agent who is trying to solve the murder of the president.  We learn quickly that, instead of being set in Washington D.C., the show is set in what appears to be an idyllic small town.  However, by the end of the first episode, it is clear that this small town is in some kind of artificial environment.

Over the course of the first season, we learn that the people living in the town are what remains of the United States' population.  The population of about 25,000 was hand selected to ride out an apocalyptical event that rendered the Earth uninhabitable inside a bunker under a mountain.

Eventually, we learn that the end of the world was brought on by a series of cataclysmic events that began with the eruption of an Antarctic volcano.  The eruption melted the ice caps, that caused a massive tidal wave which covered the majority of the Earth.  On top of that, the major powers launched last-ditch nuclear attacks against their enemies.

What a mess!

When it was finally revealed how the apocalypses happened, many fans of the show immediately started wondering if it could really happen.

What Are 'Super Volcanoes'?

In the series, the end of the world started with the eruption of a 'super volcano'.  As much as the idea sounds like something straight out of a disaster movie (or streaming TV show), there really have been super volcanoes in the Earth's past.

Geologists have discovered the remnants of about a dozen super volcanoes.

As the name implies, they are just very large volcanoes.  While it has been tens of thousands of year since any of them have erupted, when they do erupt, they spew out hundreds of cubic MILES of ash.

Yes, we do have dormant super volcanoes here in the United States.  The most well known is the Yellowstone Caldera.  This volcano has erupted three times, the most recent eruption was about 600,000 years ago.  During that eruption, the volcano spewed out about 2,500 times the amount of ash as the Mount Saint Helens' eruption did in 1980.

That super volcano is not the only one in North America, either.  Heritage Daily created an interactive map of the world's super volcanoes.

The really concerning part is that scientists believe it is possible that those super volcanoes will some day erupt.

What About Volcanoes in the Antarctic?

While the eruption of a super volcano would be destructive no matter where it happened, the main reason the world ended in 'Paradise' was the fact that the eruption happened in the Antarctic.  This caused massive amounts of ice and snow to melt in a matter of seconds, which caused a mega-tsunami.

This enormous tidal wave swept up the globe, washing away any place that was not thousands of feet above sea level.

According to the Smithsonian, there are several dozen volcanoes in the Antarctic.  Some of them have erupted recently, too.  As recently as 1970.

The good news is that it does not appear there are any super volcanoes in the Antarctic.

Could It Happen in Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts?

Sure, some day, we could be facing an extinction level event that was brought on by the eruption of a volcano.

The good news is that it is highly unlikely.

If you really like movies and TV shows about disasters, you need to watch 'Paradise'.  You can stream the entire first season now on Hulu.  Also, as of the time this article was written, the second season of the show was in production.  However, there is no premiere date set.