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.
James Clavell should write this into one of his epics.
I'll provide a tip. The ash was 6 feet deep in Nebraska.
Well, I personally am wearing pajamas and a robe, and slippers.
Well, at that time the United States must have been much smaller...
Well, there is the Mammoth Lakes caldera, a HUGH one in California, not too far from the City By the Bay.
If Mammoth Lakes erupted, the problem it would create for San Francisco would be series.
Nope. An area 3,000 miles by 3,000 miles is 9 million square miles.
I hope you are kidding, 3,000 X 3,000 = 9,000,000 square miles.
The US is approximately 3 million square miles in area so the mistake was off by an order of magnitude of 1000. Half the US as it is now constituted is about 1.5 million square miles.
An area 3,000 miles x 3,000 miles is 3,000 square miles . . . isn't it?
Uh, nope. You have to multiply 3,000 times itself: 30002 = 9 million
But 9 million square miles is too big--see post #22.
Actually, it wouldn't have the slightest effect on San Francisco. The wind essentially never, ever blows east to west there.
We are one of the world's oldest Republic, but 600,000 years is a bit too old?
And, only 2,000 humans worldwide survived. Traces of that event are still visible in our genetic history.
LOL....Well I'm relieved to hear that freepers are out there typing nekid !
As to this story.........we're Doomed !........:o)
Stay safe CG !
"It's a small world after all."
This quite possibly could be the worst-written science article I've seen in the mass media in my entire life.
I suspect when I read the Journal of Petrology article it's not going to bear the slightest resemblance to this Sky News report.
(BTW, if it's crystals in New Zealand, they were looking at Taupo, not Yellowstone. Taupo is a supervolcano that erupts a lot more often than Yellowstone.)
>>The last blast there, which occurred more than 600,000 years ago, covered half the US - around 3,000sq miles - with volcanic ash. <<
The problem is the US is closer to 4 MILLION square miles.
The end of life on this planet.
That would be enough to screw up my day.
Check that...my mistake the US is 3.7 million square miles so half would be around 1.8 million square miles.
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