Yellowstone Supereruption Would Cover North America in Ash

Scientific Computing ^ | Tue, 09/02/2014 - 10:51am | American Geophysical Union

[KarlInOhio]

Volnado?

New on SyFy: Sharkano! When the Yellowstone supervolcano shoots flaming magma sharks into the stratosphere.

[tumblindice]

“I’ll ruin those good looks of yours—with volcanic magma!”
Bonehead Ash to Ash

[doc1019]

Well, there you go. LOL!

[Billthedrill]

Top of the fifth inning at seventh game of the World Series, Mariners vs. Cubs, score tied, but somebody has to win, somebody has to break the curse that has doomed the fans of these teams to decades of frustration, of cursing futility, and at last break into the bright light of a championshi...

"Uh, sorry, folks, Yellowstone has just blown. Game called on account of ash."

We'll be back in 50,000 years, oh, yes we will...

[Manic_Episode]

[null and void]

Perhaps we should ping him?

[sjmjax]

Better ash then legions of a rabid flying monkeys

Rabid flying monkeys are now considered obsolete. You need to worry about Ebola infected flying monkeys.

[null and void]

Proof that Ebola really is airborne...

[Paul R.]

Inevitable indeed. From what they’ve been able to discern, the eruptions occur when the magma finds a weak spot in the crust. The caldera appears to ‘move’ since the plate has crept along over millions of years. Literally a matter of time until it finds another release point.

Correct. My understanding (I'm not sure where I read this) is that a relatively thick / strong area of the crust has "recently"* covered the magma "hot spot", so we should be "ok" for a while, at least as regards a monster eruption. That still doesn't keep Yellowstone from being a very active area!

*In geologic terms.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Fly ash from a power plant is very heavy. It also acts as an insulator, and after several weeks the ash under it will still be so hot it will melt the soles of your shoes.
Çoal ash from Wyoming can be mixed with water and will harden upa like concrete.

I believe the Romans built the harbor at Caesaria with such ash from Mt Etna.

[Paul R.]

Excellent info. from USGS:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3024/

USGS is one of the Gov’t agencies I actually don’t mind paying for...

[Paul R.]

Actually, a brief study of Earth’s history shows that all these things, and more, have happened and will happen again. Not that Man had anything to do with them.

Granted, current technology would give us a shot at nudging an asteroid off a collision course, IF we can spot it far enough out...

[doc1019]

I guess my attempt at being funny didn’t work. My bad, so sad.

[kevao]

Can’t get enough of these “unlikely alerts.”

And "unexpectedly" too. When you've come to expect the unexpected, then something is wrong.

[Ken H]

Scene: At the concert hall, near the end of Beethoven's Chorale Symphony, half the choir is drunk and 2 guys from the strings section are nowhere to be found.

It's the last of the Ninth, with 2 men out and the basses are loaded.

[Veggie Todd]

I could use a good piece of ash.

[steve86]

a relatively thick / strong area of the crust has "recently"* covered the magma "hot spot"

If the crust over Yellowstone was so impervious and fortress-like we wouldn't have any surface geothermal features at all. Obviously, that isn't the case.

[SatinDoll]

Why would you think that people facing starvation is a funny situation?

[Stand Watch Listen]

[urbanpovertylawcenter]

Wow, ash is a gift to rebuild our infrastructure!

God, he’s the man!