[ccmay]

When Yellowstone does blow, some geologists predict that every living thing within six hundred miles is likely to die.

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

-ccm

[Ann Archy]

I'll bite...what is the inverse-square law? Be nice, I'm just a housewife.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not the blast or the heat, but covering the countryside with volcanic ash. I could believe it has that much in it.

[Rebelbase]

How about enlighting us with your wisdom?

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

I suspect you've never heard of a supervolcano such as Yellerstone.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

What's the inverse-square law, if you don't mind me asking?

[templar]

This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

From the blast anyway. The article mentions sulphur smell, and I wonder if he's considering hydrogen sulphide, volcanic ash, assorted sulphur acids, and such in his prediction. I could possibly see that (600 miles) happening if it was a truly huge eruption (krakatoa sized at least).

[WackyKat]

When Yellowstone does blow, some geologists predict that every living thing within six hundred miles is likely to die.

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

It's not the blast they're talking about, it's the ash fall.

There's a site in I believe Iowa or Kansas in which hundreds of large animals such as camels, rhinoceros, etc were found buried in many feet of ash.

This is believed to have been caused by the last major eruption of the Yellowstone caldera.

[Axenolith]

The inverse square law isn't applicable to being covered in feet of finely ground powder composed primarily of silicates. Additionally, past explosions of Yellowstone have been way bigger than Mammoth here in CA, and that released multiple times the entire world potential yield of nuclear weapons...

[Centurion2000]

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law

Yes inverse quare applies ... but they will still die. IF this thing blows .. cancel the US.

[aruanan]

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

Or you're just unfamiliar with what has happened the previous times Yellowstone has blown. Such an eruption now would have a major worldwide effect. It would dwarf the volcanic explosion in the Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium BC and that affected the entire planet.

[Iris7]

Don't know, there is the story about fifty feet of ash in eastern Ohio the last time Yellowstone blew. "Every living thing" is of course baloney.

[staytrue]

The inverse square law applies to forces dissapating over a spherical surface like gravity, light, etc.

The blast is likely to dissapate radially outward along a cylindrical surface due to gravity pulling downward on the upper surface. Hence the inverse square law may not apply.

[rwfromkansas]

Actually, it is pretty likely that most people in that area would die. This is a huge volcano, and its history confirms such a potential. That said, it probably won't be erupting for a long time.

[GregoryFul]

Actually the last time it blew, 10 feet of ash covered the ground as far as 600 miles away.

[EUPHORIC]

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

Actually, 600 miles is a very conservative estimate. Blast effects would me minimal more then a few tens of miles away but at that point "inverse square" is as useful at protecting you as Spongebob Squarepants.

Imagine the local devastation caused by the ash fall from Mount St. Helens in the area of volcano. Now make the vent of the volcano 25 MILES IN DIAMETER instead of a few hundred feet and multiply the volume of magma HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of times over St. Helens...

Still feel warm and cozy with your "inverse square law"?

Don't unless you live on another planet or have the means to transport yourself there. This would affect every lifeform on the planet.

[Mike Darancette]

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

The inverse square law has to do with gravitational attraction.

When The Yellowstone hot spot was under Idaho the volcanic eruption destroyed herds of Rhinoceroses in Nebraska well over 600 km. Things are killed by ash and heat.

One cannot imagine 2,000 cubic Km of ejected matter falling back to earth.

[Kozak]

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

Ever hear of "Toba", The last super volcano to erupt....

What happened during the last eruption of a super volcano? The last eruption of a super volcano was in Toba, Sumatra, 75,000 years ago. It had 10,000 times the explosive force of Mount St. Helens and changed life on Earth forever. Thousands of cubic kilometres of ash was thrown into the atmosphere - so much that it blocked out light from the sun all over the world. 2,500 miles away 35 centimetres of ash coated the ground. Global temperatures plummeted by 21 degrees. The rain would have been so poisoned by the gasses that it would have turned black and strongly acidic. Man was pushed to the edge of extinction, the population forced down to just a couple of thousand. Three quarters of all plants in the northern hemisphere were killed.

Mt Saint Helens is to Toba as conventional explosion is to Nuke.