The Master™

I can't remember if I posted this on here before, certainly can't find it, but thought I'd put it out there...

Four years ago, the BBC did a documentary about a supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon...olcanoes.shtml

It now seems that the BBC are going to be doing a docu-rama about the site again, shortly... Could be well worth a watch...

The Americans have always prided themselves on have the biggest and best of everything... Here is another for the scrap-books... The supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park is thought to be the biggest in the world...

If/when it blows, we are looking at an extinction level event... Most of the living organisms of the planet will die out because of the initial explosion and the nuclear winter caused by all the dust and debris thrown into the atmosphere... In addition, it is thought that the resulting explosion could shift the planet on its axis...

Scary thoughts... Oh, and one more thing - it is several hundred years late for its latest eruption...

Time to start living in the now...

Foxbat

Scary stuff!

The bit about the world being knocked off its axis reminds me of the two newspaper headlines at the end of The Day The Earth Caught Fire.

What'll it be? Earth Saved or Earth Doomed

Head for the hills folks....wait..that's no good...that's where the volcanoes are.

Alexa

Something bother me in this article. How can scientists be sure that supervolcanos have a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years ? We are not sure about events from 3,500 years and they can predict in thousands years ? Come on !

__________________
"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true" (R.W. Emerson)

Circus Cranium

ha ha ha ha! That's funny Alexa. Ah well, if the world is gonna blow it's gonna blow. I've been hearing for years that there's a major fault line that runs from the bottom of New England up to Canada, and it's 'past due' for a quake that's going to sends us all floating off into the sea. It's good to remember sometimes that the earth is in control, not us. Makes you focus on what's important. Now where's my Hazelnut coffee with the cinnamin sprinkles, dammit?

littlemissattitude

Personally, I worry much more about the area around Mammoth erupting - it's lots closer to where I live, and depending on which way the wind is blowing when it goes, we could have major effects from it. Not exactly as big as Yellowstone, but still worrying.

Although, living in earthquake country has given me some perspective on the whole geological catastrophe thing - there are things worth worrying about, because you can do something about them, and there are things not worth worrying about because there is nothing you can do about them anyway. Yellowstone belongs to the second category. If it's going to blow, there's not a thing anyone can do about it.

Oh, and as far as the determination of the cyclical nature of such eruptions and the timing of them...geologists can tell an awful lot about what has happened in the past from the traces those events leave behind on the landscape. But I wouldn't worry too much about an eruption of Yellowstone being "late". A few thousand years seems like a long time to us, but on a geological scale it isn't very long at all.

__________________
What we got to have in this world is more love...or more slack - Gram Parsons

Alexa

I was out of stock. I just bought another box. Hmm. Smells so good !

I live on an island and I work on another one (Montreal). If Canada goes under the water, maybe in 3-4 thousands years, the future generation will talk about it like us about Atlantida. You are right. It's better to get focused on what's important in the present.

__________________
"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true" (R.W. Emerson)

Maryjane

Gee one could make a good killing selling thermos corks for those volcanoes.

Although, living in earthquake country has given me some perspective on the whole geological catastrophe thing - there are things worth worrying about, because you can do something about them, and there are things not worth worrying about because there is nothing you can do about them anyway. Yellowstone belongs to the second category. If it's going to blow, there's not

(Right on Littlemissatitude.) I think it would be allot more constructive worrying about the environment and global warming then volcanoes, at least something can be done about that.

All of Canada? well except for Midland Ontario Alexa, right?

600,000 years even carbon dating would only give you a ball park figure at dating the past event of a previous catastrophy at such site and just how can they tell acuratly when another eruption is due untill volcano in question is already in the begining stages of reawakening. There is always the sysmic readings one can log but it could still be days, hours, weeks, months, maybe even years before the final blow up.

I, Brian

Actually, for some reason I've always been pretty concerned about establishing a long-term home away from places of major potential calamity.

It used to bug me as a kid as to which country would be the safest place to live in.

Space Monkey

Me too Brian; from being a kid, I've always made quiet little contingency plans for the holocaust, such as where to haul our butts off to, where the best place to loot food would be, how to hide when the fallout began.
Funny I haven't done it in a few years, but might not be such a bad idea right now planning for an apocalypse of any nature. Political, super-volcanic, extra terrestrial (yeah I wish).

Question - when you buy a plot of land, do you own it right down to the core of the earth?

I, Brian

Glad I'm not the only paranoid one.

I've love to scout out Canada, but for some reason Switzerland keep looking great...