 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
Posted on 12/16/2009 12:17:19 PM PST by george76
University of Utah scientists say seismic images of the plumbing feeding the Yellowstone supervolcano show a magma plume much larger than previously thought.
Scientists say they've imaged a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup.
A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than projected.
The studies, led by Professor Robert Smith, suggest the same "hotspot" that feeds Yellowstone volcanism also triggered the Columbia River "flood basalts" that buried parts of Oregon, Washington state and Idaho with lava starting 17 million years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Where do I send my money to buy magma credits?????
This horror must be stopped. We need to kill all human life before this wipes us all out, and, and,... did anybody see where I put my meds?
That development of Yellowstone will disrupt bison breeding? Damn enviros will think of something.
“If this thing went off, would global warming still be a serious issue?”
Well it might, if there were any surviving humans to make the observation. The handful of survivers would most likely be more concerned with finding something to eat and clean fresh water.
The explosion would be so huge and likely of such duration that within one year NA would be a dead zone, and a few years after that the rest of the world would be effected, including the southern hemisphere.
“Dang! We’ve only got about a thousand years before we have to get our affairs in order.”
According to what I’ve read, Yellowstone is overdue - so, no thousand years - better get busy quickly. Don’t forget to put in several years worth of food and water for each person - perhaps as many as twenty years before there would be anything to hunt or fresh water to drink. Most surface structures out to several hundred miles of it would be flattened by the weight of the ash - so go low.
What am I missing?
That development of Yellowstone will disrupt bison breeding? Damn enviros will think of something.
That's about the size of it. Geothermal could make the US independent for eternity. But of course we desperately need illegals to keep us going.
Its not a dreaded ozone hole. The blessed ozone hole is letting all of the global warming out into space. Can you imagine how hot it would be around here without it?
I really didn’t think I needed a /s. :)
Hot Molton Banana Magma, don’t let Barney Frank see that.
And the lib/wackos aren’t demanding to be sated with with a huge ka-boom disaster like climate change, global warming, global cooling, and Y2K?? Wonder why? Shall we raise the tax on the tooth fairy?
IOW, something more on the scale of a couple of Krakatoas, than permanent harm. (Except for those in the immediate vicinity and the aforementioned US zones, of course; it'll be a bitch for them!)
If this thing went off, breathing would be a serious issue.
Iceland is getting power from their geysers and such.
This BTW is bad news for Yellow Stone, well us here in the USA really. If the earler theory, magma champer detached, had been correct then there was a chance of no more YS super eruptions. However if this finding proves to be true then almost certainly YS will blow big again. And YS blowing big will be bad for everything living on planet Earth. And really really bad for everything living in North America.
Sure after the nuclear winter clears up.
If this thing went off global warming would cease to be an issue as about 25 cubic miles of debris would be shot into the air. Farming in the mid west and Canada would take a bit of a vacation, and the damage would be, what is that word? Catastrophic.
Happens ever few then thousand years or so.
Probably would not have much of an impact on the plates moving. Kind of like a zit or boil bursting. Discomfort, but really not life threatening to the earth. Would not want to be standing near it though.
Exactly— It could be how civilization goes the way of the dinosaurs
|
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
My wife has this Schadenfreude thing...and therefore she enjoys watching Megadisasters....I’m saving this thread for her, because every other episode of that show features a “what if” scenario about Yellastone.
Krakatoa 1883 (VEI 6) was merely 10 x Mt St. Helens 1980 (VEI 5). Tambora 1815 (VEI 7) was 10 x Krakatoa and produced a year without a summer ejecting 150 cubic kilometers of rock, 200 million tons of aerosols.
Pinatubo 1991 (VEI 6) ejected 5 cubic kilometres of rock and 15-30 million tons of sulfur dioxide, the average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere was reduced 0.5 to 0.6C and the entire planet was cooled 0.4 to 0.5C. The maximum reduction in global temperature occurred in August • 1992 with a reduction of 0.73.
A Yellowstone VEI of 9 (or super eruption) is 300 x Krakatoa, and that is only if it comes in at the low range and short duration of possible super eruptions.
It could just go boom like St Helens and be done or, more likely, erupt for days, weeks, or months - depending how long it takes for the magma chamber to empty. Remember there is something like 400 miles x area of stuff to come out. Also it depends on what the compositon of the stuff will be - certainly a lot of sulfer dioxide, other aerosols, ash, and rock. Not to be fogotten is the last super volcano eruption in 74,000 BC of Mt Toba which eliminated most of the human race. And of which, we are the progeny of the handful of survivors.
The entire world could be plunged into years without summers, springs or falls. Some say that a super eruption during even a slight cooling trend and with an extreme low in sunspot activity (both of which we are in now) could very well trigger not just a new Ice Age but a Snowball Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth) effect.
VEI=volcanic eruption index.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.