Yellowstone threatens the world

[Ldvs]

Unfortunately that's not some poor French joke. I watched a broadcast about super volcanoes yesterday and I was flabbergasted to discover:
1) the existence of super volcanoes
2) the hardly believable lethal impact they can cause

The Americans and Canadians here probably are more aware than us Europeans, that Yellowstone, the renown national park, is also a potential disaster for humankind.

Hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface lie one of the most destructive and yet least-understood natural phenomena in the world - supervolcanoes. Only a handful exist in the world but when one erupts it will be unlike any volcano we have ever witnessed. The explosion will be heard around the world. The sky will darken, black rain will fall, and the Earth will be plunged into the equivalent of a nuclear winter.

Normal volcanoes are formed by a column of magma - molten rock - rising from deep within the Earth, erupting on the surface, and hardening in layers down the sides. This forms the familiar cone shaped mountain we associate with volcanoes. Supervolcanoes, however, begin life when magma rises from the mantle to create a boiling reservoir in the Earth's crust. This chamber increases to an enormous size, building up colossal pressure until it finally erupts.

The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. Ten thousand times bigger than Mt St Helens, it created a global catastrophe dramatically affecting life on Earth. Scientists know that another one is due - they just don't know when... or where.

Yellowstone National ParkIt is little known that lying underneath one of America's areas of outstanding natural beauty - Yellowstone Park - is one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world. Scientists have revealed that it has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago... so the next is overdue.

Molten LavaAnd the sleeping giant is breathing: volcanologists have been tracking the movement of magma under the park and have calculated that in parts of Yellowstone the ground has risen over seventy centimetres this century. Is this just the harmless movement of lava, flowing from one part of the reservoir to another? Or does it presage something much more sinister, a pressurised build-up of molten lava?

Scientists have very few answers, but they do know that the impact of a Yellowstone eruption is terrifying to comprehend. Huge areas of the USA would be destroyed, the US economy would probably collapse, and thousands might die.

The WorldAnd it would devastate the planet. Climatologists now know that Toba blasted so much ash and sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere that it blocked out the sun, causing the Earth's temperature to plummet. Some geneticists now believe that this had a catastrophic effect on human life, possibly reducing the population on Earth to just a few thousand people. Mankind was pushed to the edge of extinction... and it could happen again.

From BBC
See also this one if you're really interested in this subject for detailed information.

Frightening, isn't it?

[Viking]

Yeah, I saw the recent BBC documentaries about it. Frightening indeed, but it`s not likely to happen in our lifetime so it shouldn`t be anything to worry about, yet.

[Ldvs]

Scientists aren't that optimistic. They say it can happen anytime now, tomorrow or in 10,000 years.

[English assassin]

I think we have to distinguish between things that are frightening and that we can't possibly do anything about, and things that are frightening that we could change.

There's so many of the second to worry about its hard to have any worry left over for the first.

[discovery1]

I think we have to distinguish between things that are frightening and that we can't possibly do anything about, and things that are frightening that we could change.

Am I stupid, or does this fall into the catagory we can do something about? Drilling down to the magma chamber to relieve pressure. Course, it would be very expensive so much so that it would certainly be better to spend it on more certain/near term problems so I guess it's just a nitpick.

[Ldvs]

Unless you want to make everything explode I doubt drilling would be a good idea. Assassin is true here. Scientists are clear about that: they can't do anything but monitor and evacuate civilians when it's about to erupt.

[Steppe Merc]

To attempt and drill for an reason in Yellowstone would be unecaptalbe for the animal population there. Why don't we just drain the ocean to prevent giant tsunami, for goodness sakes?

What we have to do is fix what we've broken, not what is natrual.

[the tokai]

The explosion will be heard around the world. The sky will darken, black rain will fall, and the Earth will be plunged into the equivalent of a nuclear winter.

Now that would be extremely cool

[Viking]

Really?

Perhaps if you live on the Moon with access to satellite-tv.

[Kagemusha]

We all die eventually....

[Ldvs]

Now that would be extremely cool

Cool is the right word, considering scientists calculated that temperatures would plummet by 12°C (53.60 degrees Fahrenheit), with almost permanent snow falls spelling disaster for harvests

[Don Corleone]

Cool is the right word, considering scientists calculated that temperatures would plummet by 12°C (53.60 degrees Fahrenheit), with almost permanent snow falls spelling disaster for harvests

Lvds, no offense, but a 'delta' of 12C is not 53F. Absolute 12C is 53F, but you only add the 32F offset to get an absolute temperature reading. One degree Celcius is 9/5 (roughly 2) degrees Fahrenheit. The global climate would drop a still frosty 24F. The high temperature in Death Valley would only be in the 80s. LA would average highs of 55. Winter in Boston would see months of weather never getting above 0F.

That being said, I'm in EA's boat. Yeah, an asteroid might strike the planet at any moment. But what the hell am I going to do about it?

Funny post Ichi, I got a hoot out of that.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Ask little Georgie to nuke it.

[Ldvs]

Lvds, no offense, but a 'delta' of 12C is not 53F. Absolute 12C is 53F, but you only add the 32F offset to get an absolute temperature reading. One degree Celcius is 9/5 (roughly 2) degrees Fahrenheit. The global climate would drop a still frosty 24F. The high temperature in Death Valley would only be in the 80s. LA would average highs of 55. Winter in Boston would see months of weather never getting above 0F.

No offense taken As I never use Fahrenheit degrees, I converted thanks to a degree converter found on Internet. I just wanted to give the equivalent for the English/Americans but obviously it didn't help