Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London about to erupt?

Daily Mail ^ | 2nd January 2012 | Ted Thornhill

[george76]

A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up. It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma.

This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago.

...

Volcanologists believe that the Laacher See volcano is still active as carbon dioxide is bubbling up to the lake’s surface, which indicates that the magma chamber below is 'degassing'.

[Strategerist]

Yep, Klementi’s volcano blog at Wired is pretty awesome - he really savages this crappy article.

One other thing is that actually nobody has ever been able to agree on the definition of a “supervolcano” but Laacher See definitely isn’t one - the eruption 12,000 years ago was indeed enormous, but the VEI was 6 (indeed similar to Pinatubo) but that’s drastically less than a VEI 8 like Yellowstone, a genuine supervolcanic eruption.

[RipSawyer]

Probably George Bush’s fault but at any rate we need to make immediate sacrifices to appease the spirits of the volcano. Live humans wearing concrete shoes must be thrown into the lake. I am sure we can agree on a list of names.

[smokingfrog]

Could it become another Lake Nyos?

[surfer]

been degassing for years...

http://www.geochemsoc.org/publications/geochemicalnews/gn134jan08/goldschmidt2007excursionth.htm

[katana]

Germany is famous for its hot springs spa towns, Bad this and Bad that. Bath, England too. Except for Italy, Sicily, and the Greek islands (Santorini, for example) one seldom thinks of Europe and volcanism in the same sentence.

Oh well.

[PGR88]

Liquid Hot Magma!

[Viking2002]

It's due to all that hydraulic fracking.........part of the mating ritual of Homosexualis Americus.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[ckilmer]

One other thing is that actually nobody has ever been able to agree on the definition of a “supervolcano” but Laacher See definitely isn’t one - the eruption 12,000 years ago was indeed enormous,
....
but that would coincide roughly with the Younger Dryas that was concentrated mostly in europe.

[Bedford Forrest]

IMHO, any picture of that fat sodomite meat whistler which is not directly related to the subject of the thread should have a gag warning placed at least two or three comments before the picture itself. I mean you have a bunch of Freepers thinking about volcanoes, plate tectonics, the lava blowing up into the sky - and these people are thinking how neat it would have been to have been a geologist, doing all these interesting things - and they are scrolling down through the comments - and up pops a picture of that stinking bucket of pig guts - like a dead rat in the rum punch bowl. C’mon, how about a warning next time. :) :)

[Strategerist]

If the CO2 is bubbling out (which it is) it isn’t building up, which is what happens in lakes like Nyos.

Interestingly, I went to go look at some academic papers on the eruption 12,000 years ago - the ash and pyroclastic flows temporarily damned the Rhine in two places, and would have completely flooded the city of Koblenz; and then after the dam broke a 30+foot wave went down the Rhine.

[Mike Darancette]

A visit to the Laacher See volcano is incomplete without descending down a stair case tunnel ( <120 steps) to the ancient underground excavations of the Mendig lava flow (a tephrite), which were used for the production of millstones since Roman times. More recently, the cellars were utilized by breweries, one of which still produces a delicious "Volcano Beer". The day ended cheerfully with beers and food in the patio of the brewery.

Field work can be a bitch!

[onehipdad]

Dang, I have six trips to Europe scheduled this year..

[smokingfrog]

kowabunga!

[goodnesswins]

"Unless the one in Yellowstone takes us out first."

THAT was MY first thought, also!

[markman46]

LOL you owe mw a new keyboard Vike!!

[markman46]

LOL you owe me a new keyboard Vike!!

[Viking2002]

Don't blame me if you can't hold down your liquor. It's enough that I struggle to to hold down my lunch at the thought of it. That picture of Bawney wearing an XL tee shirt over his XXXL man boobs in a Congressional photo last week is proof enough that he wants about 250,000,000 Americans to puke on their collective shoes. And he's downright arrogant about it. His day of reckoning is coming. Book it.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[dfwgator]

t's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma.

[Secret Agent Man]

“..monster something erupting...?” /hopeful Barney