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Explosive silica-rich super-volcanic eruptions pose a major, recurring threat to Earth’s surface environment. In the last several hundred years about a dozen moderate (more than 5 cubic kilometers of ash), yet highly destructive, volcanic eruptions have occurred.  In contrast, a rhyolitic super-eruption can immediately deposit several hundred cubic kilometers of volcanic ash over vast areas, posing a societal hazard at the scale of an entire continent.  Volcanic gases and particles injected into the stratosphere by these explosive events would lead to significant deterioration of the global climate and major disruptions to air traffic.  

Sooner or later, the Earth will experience another super-eruption, thus there is a need to gather comprehensive information and create models that realistically account for the dynamics that lead to these destructive events.  To meet this challenge requires that we understand: (1) the slow geologic processes and conditions within large bodies of magma that lead to such events, and (2) the precursory dynamics on both long (years to millennia), and short (months to weeks) human time scales. A key question is: where on Earth can we anticipate that such an event is currently brewing?