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- SheilaNoya, on 12/30/2008, -3/+69Yellowstone is one of the few "Super Volcanoes" in the world. Here's a lot more info regarding the devastation it will cause if (when?) it blows.
http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm - Ysabetwordsmith, on 12/30/2008, -4/+46O_O Eeek eeek eeek. I've read descriptions of what that hotspot can do when it blows. We're within geologic timerange of an eruption. That would be ... bad. I really hope this is just a false alarm. Yellowstone is a geyserfield, after all; it spurts and shimmies and hisses a lot.
- YodaJones, on 12/30/2008, -6/+46It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
- dougyfresh, on 12/30/2008, -2/+38This is the only time you will see anything Wyoming related on the front page of digg.
:( - asgardshill, on 12/30/2008, -4/+27KILL US WITH FIRE!
- vertigo32, on 12/30/2008, -2/+21Oh no, it's much more than a third of the country. A third of the country is immediately *****.
The rest of the country, and most of the world, is going to be ***** in the long run. - CATSCEO2, on 12/30/2008, -3/+21Natural disasters are becoming more common place because there are more people to experience them.
- Godmil, on 12/30/2008, -3/+21I usually take 11:59pm to be a good sign of the end of days
- Blyssz, on 12/30/2008, -0/+18In North-America, Yellowstone visits you!
- Flyman360, on 12/30/2008, -4/+18It’s OK, everyone can relax. The US defense team is preparing to confront any kind of threat.
- tnvwboy, on 12/30/2008, -0/+11Be happy!
- americangenius, on 12/30/2008, -6/+16Don't worry
- zxmn, on 12/30/2008, -0/+9Here are a few links to historical and real time data in the effected region within Yellowstone.
A GPS sensor under the lake, showing a rather sudden shift in position and height, starting about 3 years ago and continuing through today. The total movement over the past 3 years seems to be about 200mm, or about 10 inches:
http://www.uusatrg.utah.edu/TS_YSRP/lkwy.html
A list of real time seismographs from around the Yellowstone region:
http://www.seis.utah.edu/helicorder/heli/yellowsto ...
A graph from a seismometer under the lake, on Dec 21st:
http://www.seis.utah.edu/helicorder/heli/yellowsto ...
The same instrument, yesterday (Dec 29th):
http://www.seis.utah.edu/helicorder/heli/yellowsto ...
The real time view (almost - seems to refresh once a minute or so):
http://www.seis.utah.edu/helicorder/heli/yellowsto ...
It's interesting that the earthquake swarm coincides with the location of the ground swell. As I understand it, upward ground movement is an indicator of rising magma. I wonder if the quakes are a direct result of moving magma, or perhaps instead the result of water coming in contact with magma deep beneath the surface.
It would be interesting to see whether the ground swell has accelerated in recent days - although I'm not sure it's measurable over such a short time frame.
Interesting stuff.... - divinediva, on 12/30/2008, -3/+12All the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.
- EarlOfLade, on 12/30/2008, -0/+8We are something like 50,000 years overdue for a new eruption in Yellowstone. Not sure what you mean with a couple of hundred years, that is like a millisecond in geological time.
Basically, we are expecting an eruption any day, but any day can be any day in the next 100,000 years but still! - koyner, on 12/30/2008, -4/+12***** comments.
- MommaLu, on 12/30/2008, -2/+10Yellowstone scares the crap out of me. Freaking super volcanoes!
- JMorrison2103, on 12/30/2008, -0/+7There was another great special that my college geology profeesor showed us, of a replication of a caldera eruption in a test-tube using volatile gasses and super heated pine resin to act as lava, all under immense pressure. Then the experiment opens a pin size hole at the top. The slow motion footage of that simulated eruption is awe inspiring.
I have been telling my wife for years that we need to get to Yellowstone before the Caldera blows and wipes out all of Colorado and Wyoming, and she allways rolls her eyes. To think this is the country where Mt. St Helens erupted and yet so few people know of what is going on beneath us. - JMorrison2103, on 12/30/2008, -0/+7Sounds plausible, but probably not feasible. The release in pressure might actually trigger the eruption, not to mention the scale of such a drilling....this is a lava bubble that is pushing 100s of square miles up a couple of inches per year. Thats a lot of lava/gasses.
- uptwolait, on 12/30/2008, -3/+10I just hope Yogi and Boo Boo make it out okay.
- TheDreadDiggerD, on 12/30/2008, -1/+8Or a good day, depending on your politics.
- crappish, on 12/30/2008, -0/+6Uhhuh. And as far as I can remember, the big activity at Yellowstone caldera has been like a clock; huge eruptions every 600 000 years (or so), and were sitting at that timeframe currently.
From Discovery web-site:
"Volcanologists with the U.S. Geological Survey believe that supervolcanoes are likely to give decades — even centuries — of warning signs before they erupt. The scientists think those signs would include lots of earthquakes, massive bulging of the land, an increase in small eruptions, "swarms" of earthquakes in specific areas, changes in the chemical composition of lavas from smaller eruptions, changes in gasses escaping the ground and, possibly, large-scale cracking of the land."
"Swarms" of earthquakes in specific areas, anyone? Any reports of gas amounts or ground cracking?
Little bit extra info about the matter:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/07 ...
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/ ... - CATSCEO2, on 12/30/2008, -0/+5From orbit!
- derekmas10, on 12/30/2008, -0/+5*****, St. Helens was a mere fart compared to the eruptions that the Yellowstone caldera has produced in the past. Forget wiping out Colorado and Wyoming, you have everything east of Wyoming that will basically be without sunlight for a few days not to mention the ash...
- solmakou, on 12/30/2008, -1/+6As soon as I saw this article that's exactly where my mind went, if that super volcano blows a third of the country is *****.
- inactive, on 12/30/2008, -0/+5If the Yellowstone supervolcano goes, life on Earth as we know it will change forever. Think: 'postapocalyptic"
- socialrebel, on 12/30/2008, -1/+6if Katrina is any indication of how our government can handle a disaster, then we're seriously ***** if this volcano explodes.
- derekmas10, on 12/30/2008, -0/+5personally, being downwind, I hope this isn't another big event coming.
Dugg out of fear - tattertech, on 12/30/2008, -1/+6"Myth? Ray, has it ever occurred to you that maybe the reason we've been so busy lately is 'cause the dead *have* been rising from the grave?"
- EarlOfLade, on 12/30/2008, -0/+5When Yellowstone blows, it will be a bad day for the bible belt.
- evilsin, on 12/30/2008, -0/+5if a volcano under yellowstone blows, it'll rain most of the country across RV's and picnic tables.
- darkfish, on 12/30/2008, -6/+10@americangenius
Listen genius, there have always been "end of days". The K-T extinction (End-Cretaceous) was one of the most recent ones where where 85% or so of all species died out, including the. So yeah "it is written" indeed. But maybe not the way you think, especially if you believe the Earth is only 6000 years old.
Human beings too, may become extinct one day. That's just the way it is. No need for holy books and the intercessions of magic beings. - inactive, on 12/31/2008, -0/+4The quakes continue today and it’s not just that there are so many quakes, all but a few quakes are within a mile or two of each other and at every depth between 7.2 km and the surface suggesting pressurized movement along the same chimney right down to the magma chamber at ~ 8 km. The recorded movements may be from heated water or magma but even if only a single magma vent is established, it could depressurize the magma chamber to the point of explosive release of gases from the magma to create the super volcano effect across the whole 70 km caldera.
Beyond the global volcanic winter devastating agriculture and the deaths/disease inflicted on all breathing animals from ash inhalation, I am concerned that water pumps cooling nuclear reactors will not survive for long with significant ash contamination in feed water and there should be a plan to dissipate latent heat in reactor cores and spent fuel storage pools given that the heat from radioactive decay will have to be actively dissipated for months after reactor shut down. The only apparent method of preventing the eventual melting and release of the nuclear fuel is to create enough reserve clean water storage to allow long term/continuous containment vessel blow down, (temperature-lowering depressurization of the reactor core by releasing radioactive steam into the containment structure and then into the air), and replacement of evaporated water from spent fuel storage. Although nuclear plants are required to have this reserve water storage, it is already being used to cool spent fuel rods not originally intended for onsite storage and is therefore not available for blow down replacement as that would allow spent fuel to melt. New covered reserve water pools capable of sustaining heavy wet ash loads must therefore be built across the U.S. to accommodate this ash scenario and these reserve pools would have to be considerably larger for longer term blow down and spent fuel cooling. If the nukes are not secured, just add 600 years for the major fission fragments to decay over 20 half lives, (450,000 years for Plutonium to decay to acceptible levels), to the multiple decades of devastation caused by the ash cloud. Katrina would be seen as a comparative lunchtime picnic in a light breeze. - lfrankow, on 12/30/2008, -4/+8My walls were bleeding this morning, and I shrugged it off as a bad day.
So what if Yellowstone turns into a supervolcano. I just hope they get Yogi and Boo-Boo out in time. The ranger can fend for himself. - rkyle, on 12/30/2008, -2/+6Just stick a huge drinking straw in the top of the hotspot.
- sparf, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4Off-topic, but I've no idea why this map describes a pre-1796 border between Tennessee and North Carolina.
http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/fs2005-3024_fig_ ... - gcnaddict, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4PROTIP: If Yellowstone blows, you're probably going to die.
- kevizzy37, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4If you live in this area like I do.... You *****...
http://people.uwec.edu/ERICKSKM/yellowstone-volcan ... - sotose, on 12/30/2008, -1/+5That's where you'll find their mothership,Scully.
- 9bpm9, on 12/30/2008, -1/+5Haven't we all seen the History channel segment about Super Volcanoes that's on, I dunno, five times a day?
- justjoehere, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4Let's ask for a bailout to calm it.
- stevensj2, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4Since such the explosion of a super volcano comes from the mounting gasses and magma building under the surface, couldn't it be feasible to drill into, or remove some of the surface, to release that pressure?
Rather than a big "POP!" and explosion, perhaps a vent could be created to let out the pressure less dramatically, and more gently over a period of time.
If the idea of shooting missiles towards incoming asteroids can be entertained, then one should think that there must be _some_ research going on to help manage a threat that is actually in our forecast. - Eezyville, on 12/30/2008, -3/+7Yellowstone has one of the worlds most massive volcanoes underneath it. If it blows then basically ***** gonna hit the fan. I don't think any type of government aid will save the millions that will be lost. However I for one think its about time for a great natural disaster. Hopfully stupid people die first.
- casbar, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4Is it coming? Suffocating to death will very much suck.
- inactive, on 12/30/2008, -1/+5Get Obama to talk to it. It will change.
- angusm, on 12/30/2008, -0/+4If a volcano under Yellowstone blows, it'll rain RVs and picnic tables across most of the country.
- inactive, on 12/30/2008, -2/+5There are Quakers at Yellowstone? If we buy more of their furniture will they settle down?
- Chris_F, on 12/30/2008, -4/+7I say we nuke it.
- inactive, on 12/30/2008, -0/+3Dick Cheney is from Wyoming. If you want to continue to claim him, technically you see Wyoming related stuff a lot!
- reyalp, on 12/30/2008, -0/+3Cue "The More You Know" graphic.
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