Yellowstone Supervolcano Making Strange Rumblings

www.Fox News.com ^ | 3-14-2007 | EDCOIL

[edcoil]

Yellowstone Supervolcano Making Strange Rumblings

Steam rises from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in a 2002 file photo.

Supervolcanoes can sleep for centuries or millennia before producing incredibly massive eruptions that can drop ash across an entire continent.

One of the largest supervolcanoes in the world lies beneath Yellowstone National Park, which spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

[ReignOfError]

Steam rises from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in a 2002 file photo.

The threat is so imminent that it is best illustrated with a file photo from five years ago.

Uh huh. Pull the other one.

[3niner]

Hasn't it been 600,000 yearssince the last one? Doesn't the next eruption get closer each year but still might be hundreds of thousands of years till the next one?

We are about due for the next one. That means we could see it any time in the next 1/2 million or so years.

[wodinoneeye]

I have an Idea : lets throw all our tree-huggers into the volcano as a sacrifice to Mother Gaia to satisfy her wrath....

!!! Thats the ticket !!!!!!

[Cuttnhorse]

When you drive up through Idaho, craters of the moon, you can see at least three previous lava flows that are at least 10 to 20 feet thick.
They came from Yellowstone in the past, and so a new one will come and flow over them in the future.

Bzzzt, Wrong answer. The volcanics at Craters have nuttin to do with Yellowstone...different chemistry of the flows; basaltic and basaltic andesites composition of the flows, and they are from local fissures...think Hawaii-type volcanics. Yellowstone is more rhyolitic in composition and is therefore more likely to produce explosive eruptions...think Mount St. Helens. Different beasts...in fact, St. Helens is actully chemically more basic than the Yellowstone volcanics, but still produce explosive eruptions.

[hardworking]

it would probably cause a mini ice age in the northern hemisphere for some years

Well, there you have it! Al-bore obviously ordered this up to solve global warming.

[Night Hides Not]

The last 'super-volcano' to blow was Toba, 75,000 years ago.

Did somebody say...

TOBA PARTY???

...never mind...

[UglyinLA]

Torie

Great reference article.

I noticed in the historical eruption map that the ash border stops at USA/Mexico border. I think we need to warn all mexicans not to come here unless they want to burn up in volcanic flames. Hey, whaddya know, I just solved the illegal alien problem.

[Frank Sheed]

Discovery aired a show on Super Volcanos and did the Yellowstone scenario in a docudrama. It got drubbed by decent scientists:

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/ap_050408_supervolcano.html

They've since moved on to other projects. Things like finding the tomb and bones of Jesus. It was masterfully done by James Cameron.

[Malacoda]

When the Weather Channel sends Jim Cantore, I'll be concerned. That dude is at ground zero of every crappy weather event.

[RaceBannon]

I'm in Connecticut, and I dont feel anything....

[greyfoxx39]

I have seen a TV special about the supervolcano, and it's pretty ominous..however, I doubt any of us will still be around to see it.

[NRA2BFree]

NOOOOOOOOO! We're all gonna die!

KABOOM!!

[carolinalivin]

Race, pinch yourself to see if your logged in.

[LexBaird]

Here's the Mesa Falls that the Mesa Falls ash bed is named for. You can see how thick the layer is: 114 feet high, 300 ft wide. A half mile downstream, the river drops another 65 feet.

[Dan(9698)]

I have seen a TV special about the supervolcano, and it's pretty ominous...

It covered this part of Wyoming in 12 feet of ash.

It took us a long time to dig out.

[eyespysomething]

I never thought I would get to post this graphic again!!

[Maceman]

We are closer this year than we have been for many, many years in the past.

Seems to me that statement would have been true of any year of the past 5,000 years or so.

[LibKill]

Strange Rumblings

Too much beer and beans? :)

[Dan(9698)]

Seems to me that statement would have been true of any year of the past 5,000 years or so.

Maybe longer. - You wouldn't want me to be posting false info, would you?

[Chickensoup]

We are closer this year than we have been for many, many years in the past.


Why do you say that?