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2011-01-25 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
World's largest super-volcano set to wipe out two-thirds of the U.S.
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Posted by tipper 2011-01-25 01:46|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 But hampered by a lack of data they have stopped short of an all-out warning and they are unable to put a date on when the next disaster might take place.

Could happen at any moment. We'd better go take over Iran. And Norkland. And Venezuela. And "Palestine".
Posted by gorb 2011-01-25 03:43||   2011-01-25 03:43|| Front Page Top

#2 I wondered why the entire world was descending upon this Air Base.
Posted by Besoeker 2011-01-25 04:10||   2011-01-25 04:10|| Front Page Top

#3 The wet dream of two-thirds of the world.

Some day, it will stop erupting. Or maybe it already has stopped. At least it's not related to global warming, although such an eruption would cool off the rest of the planet!
Posted by Bobby 2011-01-25 06:00||   2011-01-25 06:00|| Front Page Top

#4 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
Posted by Procopius2k 2011-01-25 07:57||   2011-01-25 07:57|| Front Page Top

#5 nice images in the article

however, the uplift in the Yellowstone Caldera essentially stopped in early 2010 and the peak in small scale quakes stopped about the same time
Posted by Lord Garth 2011-01-25 10:02||   2011-01-25 10:02|| Front Page Top

#6 In the long run, we're all dead.
What do we do in the meantime?
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-01-25 10:10||   2011-01-25 10:10|| Front Page Top

#7 What do we do in the meantime?

Worry about dying, put up with terrorists, vote idiots into office . . . .
Posted by gorb 2011-01-25 10:33||   2011-01-25 10:33|| Front Page Top

#8 I'm hoping to be a nice creamy shade of sandstone myself.
Posted by Goober Goobelopolous 2011-01-25 10:33||   2011-01-25 10:33|| Front Page Top

#9 Lord Garth is correct, the rise slowed and stopped in 2010. However, we have no idea the warning signs for a supervolcano as we have never witnessed one in modern times. They have gone off several times in human history and one is even theorized to have caused a genetic bottleneck by killing so many animals that only a few thousand breeding pairs were left.

Basically, it could go off at anytime or it could blow in a couple thousand years. If it does go, there is very little we can do except get out of the way. Disaster preparedness will mean nothing since your few days of food will not mean squat since entire years worth of food/farmlad will be buried and destroyed. There will be no cavalry to come save you since the cavalry will be casualties or running for their lives themselves.
Posted by DarthVader 2011-01-25 11:56||   2011-01-25 11:56|| Front Page Top

#10 I would think flights being grounded would be the least of concerns.

Along with my family and personal collectables, I would like to have sealed copies of the EPA's letter outlawing this activity on account of emission violations and the Sierra Club's letter condemning the destruction of protected lands.
Posted by swksvolFF 2011-01-25 11:58||   2011-01-25 11:58|| Front Page Top

#11 Imma gonna get a case of beer and watch the fireworks.
Posted by Deacon Blues 2011-01-25 12:45||   2011-01-25 12:45|| Front Page Top

#12 Actually there ARE ways to help relieve pressure before it goes boom, but the EPA and others would NEVER allow it. If we cracked it open so that the magma could flow out instead of exploding, it'd probably stave off a massive kaboom. Course, cracking it means kissing Yellowstone National Park goodbye.
Posted by Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton 2011-01-25 12:46||   2011-01-25 12:46|| Front Page Top

#13 All theory silentbrick. Kinda like drilling a small hole in a champagne bottle to release the fizz. The problem is there are so many unknowns. It might work, if the pressure is correctly predicted, there are no weird cracks and faults over the miles of magma chamber, no earthquakes happen that to break the hole/create new fissures, etc., etc. I would consider an effort to release the pressure to be a very desperate and last ditch effort with a small chance of success. Better than the chance of no success if the whole thing blows, but still a long shot.
Posted by DarthVader 2011-01-25 13:23||   2011-01-25 13:23|| Front Page Top

#14 Oh, I was thinking more along the lines of blowing bloody great holes, not drilling expect to drop a nuke down to break up the rock. We'd need a pretty big hole though to relieve enough pressure. But yeah, theory. Course, you have theory vs certain knowledge that at some point, it WILL go boom.
Posted by Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton 2011-01-25 13:32||   2011-01-25 13:32|| Front Page Top

#15 They are not particularly concerned, because the plume is about 8-10km down. If it was just 2-4km down, it would be a lot more worrisome.

That being said, a long time ago, the oceanic Farallon Plate was pushed at a shallow angle under North America, when the west coast of North America was about Utah. Its remnants are still sliding under the Pacific northwest.

There is some suggestion that this lighter, crust material provides much of the material pushed up from below by the heavier basalt.
Posted by  Anonymoose 2011-01-25 13:55||   2011-01-25 13:55|| Front Page Top

#16 I'm sure Bruce Willis could turn this into a movie...
Posted by Steve White 2011-01-25 14:21||   2011-01-25 14:21|| Front Page Top

#17 letting the lava flow won't do it. Two types of volcanoes eruption wise:

(1) Kilauea type - low water basalt that flows river like although more viscous. Low hazard, minimal booms, predictable results

(2) Mt. St. Helens type - High water crustal content. Extreme boom, lots of ejecta, pyroclastic flow. Think a pressure cooker as the vapor builds.

The sheer size of the events dwarfs human ability to digest. Scientists for years knew there was a volcano in Yellowstone but couldn't find it. They were standing in the middle of the caldera but at tens of miles wide didn't realize what it was.

If this decides to go, every 600000 yrs +or-, there is nothing we can do. A true ELE Extinction Level Event.

Did my Master's field work on an extinct volcanic plug 30 miles SE of Yellowstone..
Posted by Warthog 2011-01-25 14:45||   2011-01-25 14:45|| Front Page Top

#18 Area of outstanding natural beauty: The Yellowstone caldera (circled in red) in Wyoming is the world's largest super-volcano



we never do anything small.
Posted by anonymous2u 2011-01-25 14:49||   2011-01-25 14:49|| Front Page Top

#19 "I'm sure Bruce Willis could turn this into a movie..."

Already been done, Steve - though not by Bruce Willis. It was a made-for-TV movie a few years ago.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-01-25 14:56||   2011-01-25 14:56|| Front Page Top

#20 yup Babs...saw that one...Mrs. Warthog cringes whenever I watch something like this. As I remember...the science wasn't that bad (other than the 3-D prediction stuff....All in all...we don't now enough to predict weeks in advance...maybe days
Statistically, the probability of that happening in our lifetime is about the same as Obama embracing Tea Party views...we should all feel safe about this one...
Posted by Warthog 2011-01-25 15:21||   2011-01-25 15:21|| Front Page Top

#21 On the other hand, Sirius (the star, not the company) could go super-nova at any moment - at which point we have about 8 years before the gamma/x-ray flash sterilizes our planet.

But that's what we call an occurrence of "low-order probability"...
Posted by mojo 2011-01-25 16:06||   2011-01-25 16:06|| Front Page Top

#22 On the other hand the eruption would stop global warming...
Posted by European Conservative 2011-01-25 17:23||   2011-01-25 17:23|| Front Page Top

#23  On the other hand the eruption would stop global warming...
And, as a side benefit, make a serious dent in the world's human population. To some people, this is a goal to work towards.
Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2011-01-25 18:48||   2011-01-25 18:48|| Front Page Top

#24 Every disaster is a new opportunity. I would drill the heck out of the caldera at key points and extract geothermal energy in quantities that would make Iceland's production dwarf. We could have geothermal steam plants that would generate some serious electrical energy. EPA get outta duh way.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-01-25 19:16||   2011-01-25 19:16|| Front Page Top

#25 I would drill the heck out of the caldera at key points and extract geothermal energy in quantities that would make Iceland's production dwarf. We could have geothermal steam plants that would generate some serious electrical energy.

Sounds like the beginning of a made for Syfy channel movie.
Posted by CincinnatusChili 2011-01-25 23:10||   2011-01-25 23:10|| Front Page Top

00:01 JosephMendiola
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