Posted on 01/30/2005 8:41:42 PM PST by HAL9000
SUPERVOLCANOES WARNING
Slumbering supervolcanoes powerful enough to wipe out much of the planet may awaken much sooner than it had previously been thought.
Experts believed it would take hundreds of thousands of years for reservoirs of molton rock, or magma, beneath a supervolcano to build for an eruption.
But a new study indicates the time between super-eruptions can actually be tens of thousands of years - and many are already long overdue.
A blast from a supervolcano would be strong enough cause mass extinction and change the world's climate.
The findings, published in the Journal of Petrology, are bad news for anyone living in the centre of the US.
An overdue monster supervolcano is hidden underneath one of the country's premier holiday spots - Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
The last blast there, which occurred more than 600,000 years ago, covered half the US - around 3,000sq miles - with volcanic ash.
Researchers in New Zealand analysed zircon crystals, which grow within volcanic magma, to calculate how long build up takes before eruptions.
Their answer was no more than 40,000 years - a relatively short time in geological terms.
Supervolcanoes are estimated to carry a force thousands of times that of a normal explosion.
They spew thousands of cubic yards of ash, dust and poisonous sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere and create a giant crater, or caldera.
Recent measurements indicate that over the past century the earth above the Yellowstone magma chamber has risen almost 19 inches. Scientists say this is telling evidence of pressure building below.
Yeah, baby!
Well....if it's my time to go it's my time to go.
Yeah, but when this happens it'll be Bush's fault.
This is what we should be scared of not freaking lieing Global warming. What a joke!
Are any of the super volcanos located in San Francisco? :D
"May Erupt Soon"
Or....................
I sure hope global warming doesn't skew the data we can collect when these supervolcanoes start to blow and WIPE OUT LIFE ON EARTH!!!!
frankly I'm more concerned about explosions caused by terrorists than explosions caused by volcanoes.
"The last blast there, which occurred more than 600,000 years ago, covered half the US - around 3,000sq miles - with volcanic ash."
There is a blatant flaw in this sentence making it unbelievable to anyone with an IQ above 95.
Women and Minorities (will be) Hit Hardest
I thought only humans had the power to change the world's climate.
What's the chance of one openning below Mecca and swallowing the devil's city back to Hell?
The earth was a lot smaller then
Just curious about if any of the super volcanos are in San Francisco because it would give a new meaning to the word "flamer"
"The earth was a lot smaller then"
Oh, thanks, my mistake, I wasn't aware of that ; 0 )
If it's half the US, I hope it holds off for a few years. If it's 3000 square miles, it won't get any decent farm ground. Anybody know which it is?
and the ash would remain in the upper atmosphere for some years - making it a very COLD world.
Gore better hurry up with that global warming!
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