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What If the Yellowstone Supervolcano Erupts?
livescience.com ^ | June 02, 2012 11:42am ET | Natalie Wolchover |

Posted on 01/08/2016 1:49:27 PM PST by BenLurkin

With enough warning, the states near Yellowstone could be evacuated, which would largely avoid a tremendous loss of life caused by the downpour of ash, the scientists said. But that's just in the short term; the aftermath would be the rub. For several days, ash would hang in the air, making it difficult to breathe. And that blanket of ash covering the country would smother vegetation and pollute the water supply, quickly leading to a nationwide food crisis. "A lot of people would perish," said Stephen Self, director of the Volcano Dynamics Group at the Open University in the U.K. He envisions American refugees lining up at the Mexican border.

...inhospitable conditions would persist in the midwestern U.S. for about a decade. "The records show that [new] vegetation starts to take hold about 10 years after supereruptions. It depends on how much rainfall the area receives, as rainfall is the main way you clear ash off the land..."

Based on the new models, the scientists now think the vast majority of Earth's species would weather a Yellowstone supereruption just fine (except, of course, for those knocked out due to proximity of the initial blast). They don't see any evidence in the geologic record of mass extinctions coinciding with supereruptions, and they don't predict extinctions to result from such geologic events in the future.

...

Yellowstone's last full-scale outburst occurred 640,000 years ago, and the ones before that occurred 1.3 million and 2.1 million years ago — but each of these events was a tad smaller than the one before it. This geologic hotspot could be growing cold. Or it might have one last hurrah.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: supervolcano; yellowstone; yellowstonevolcano
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

I’ll get rich from the new sport...ASH Boarding!

How many old timers remember ASH?
Ah the old days, remember to close your tags.


41 posted on 01/08/2016 3:26:45 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: BenLurkin

I survived Mount St. Helens so I’m battle tested and ready for the main event.


42 posted on 01/08/2016 3:29:58 PM PST by CommerceComet (Ignore the GOP-e. Cruz to victory in 2016.)
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To: BenLurkin

Is it true that the next caldera-forming eruption of Yellowstone is overdue?

No. First of all, one cannot present recurrence intervals based on only two values. It would be statistically meaningless. But for those who insist... let’s do the arithmetic. The three eruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 0.64 million years ago. The two intervals are thus 0.8 and 0.66 million years, averaging to a 0.73 million-year interval. Again, the last eruption was 0.64 million years ago, implying that we are still about 90,000 years away from the time when we might consider calling Yellowstone overdue for another caldera- forming eruption. Nevertheless, we cannot discount the possibility of another such eruption occurring some time in the future, given Yellowstone’s volcanic history and the continued presence of magma beneath the Yellowstone caldera.

From: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_sub_page_55.html


43 posted on 01/08/2016 3:30:03 PM PST by Gen.Blather
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To: BenLurkin
"The records show that [new] vegetation starts to take hold about 10 years after supereruptions. It depends on how much rainfall the area receives, as rainfall is the main way you clear ash off the land..."

I visited Mt. St. Helens 24 years after it erupted and in the areas of ash fall near it there were only one or two species of plants growing in it and they were sparse. Rainfall in the Cascades isn't exactly a problem either.

44 posted on 01/08/2016 3:30:35 PM PST by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason and rule of law. Prepare!)
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To: Verginius Rufus

LOL...first thing that popped into my head.


45 posted on 01/08/2016 3:36:03 PM PST by daler
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To: BenLurkin

46 posted on 01/08/2016 3:48:24 PM PST by Mat_Helm
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To: BenLurkin

“And that blanket of ash covering the country would smother vegetation and pollute the water supply”

How does volcanic ash pollute aquifers?


47 posted on 01/08/2016 3:48:48 PM PST by sergeantdave ( If not you, who? If not now, when?)
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To: BenLurkin

So? Nu? Run around screaming?


48 posted on 01/08/2016 3:56:14 PM PST by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: BenLurkin

More chance of the Cascadia fault popping before jellystone blows.
Over 600 miles of fault, will take about 5 minutes, and the west coast would really get it.


49 posted on 01/08/2016 4:00:22 PM PST by crz
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To: BenLurkin

I was just in Yellowstone two days ago. They must have had a tremendous eruption because there was white ash everywhere. I asked the ranger about this and he said it was from all the ashholes they have been seeing in the park. I asked him where these ashholes were. He told me to look in the mirror.


50 posted on 01/08/2016 4:05:16 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: BenLurkin

American refugees lining up on the Mexican border. How ironic. I wonder how the Mexicans will like it.


51 posted on 01/08/2016 4:14:07 PM PST by VerySadAmerican
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To: BenLurkin

Considering we live in middle of nowhere Southwest Idaho, I guess we will die the way I always wanted to....HORRIBLY.


52 posted on 01/08/2016 4:24:14 PM PST by KC-10A BOOMER (Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War!)
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To: BenLurkin

Then it erupts.


53 posted on 01/08/2016 4:24:34 PM PST by onedoug
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To: BenLurkin

To quote James Hetfield, “Nothing Else Matters”


54 posted on 01/08/2016 4:28:10 PM PST by StevieRay20
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To: StevieRay20

55 posted on 01/08/2016 4:29:17 PM PST by Daffynition (*Security, confiscate their coats. Get them out of here. It's 10 below zero out there ~DJT)
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To: VerySadAmerican

The Mexicans will build a wall LOL!


56 posted on 01/08/2016 4:32:47 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: BenLurkin

Those dates/times of the last big eruptions can all be verified,right? I personally do not believe it.


57 posted on 01/08/2016 4:51:44 PM PST by oldtech
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To: BenLurkin

Well if it does I for one won’t be concerned.........for long that is.


58 posted on 01/08/2016 6:38:00 PM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: roamer_1
Sadly, Seattle will still be there.

Ya never know St. Helens might just have sympathy pangs.

59 posted on 01/08/2016 6:40:16 PM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Mastador1
Ya never know St. Helens might just have sympathy pangs.

It'd have to be Mt Rainier ... and even that is too far east and south... But we might get lucky with a mega-tsunami.

60 posted on 01/08/2016 6:49:06 PM PST by roamer_1 (Globalism is just Socialism in a business suit.)
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