So, we all know (or most of us know) that volcanoes are, in a very basic definition, vents in the earth that magma erupts out of.
But, what about Supervolcanoes?
I've seen many documentaries on the National Geographic Channel about the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park. | Quote: |
| Yellowstone National Park sits atop a subterranean chamber of molten rock and gasses so vast that the region, known for its geysers and grizzlies, is arguably one of the largest active volcanoes in the world. |
So basically, Yellowstone could be sitting on a ticking time bomb. Scientists argue that if an imminent eruption is to occur, the ground would rise several hundred meters in what could be only weeks (but that could be arguable, as the last supervolcanic eruption occured over 640,000 years ago). The two resurgent domes at Yellowstone have risen only one meter in 80 years, which makes eruption unlikely anytime in the next few months at least.
The Discovery Channel has this to say about the activity of the supervolcano under Yellowstone:
| Quote: |
it's not your typical volcano, either in scale (it's huge), appearance (it's a vast depression, not a single mountain) or frequency of eruption (at least hundreds of thousands of years apart).
But it is active, and the evidence is everywhere.
A relatively close-to-the-surface magma chamber — as close as 5 miles underground in some spots — fuels thousands of spewing geysers, hissing steam vents, gurgling mud pots and steaming hot springs that help make Yellowstone such an otherworldly and popular tourist attraction, with 3 million summer visitors.
Molten rock and gas in a chamber near the Earth's surface is similarly present below "traditional" cone-shaped active volcanoes, like Mount St. Helens in Washington state.
But there are differences. Huge differences.
The crater atop Mount St. Helens is about 2 square miles. The Yellowstone "caldera" — a depression in the Earth equivalent to a crater top — is some 1,500 square miles.
The 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption blew 1,300 vertical feet off the mountain, sent an eruption column 80,000 feet high in 15 minutes, ejected 1.4 billion cubic yards of ash detectable over 22,000 square miles, and killed 57 people.
But the last major eruption at Yellowstone, some 640,000 years ago, ejected 8,000 times the ash and lava of Mount St. Helens.
And that wasn't even the largest eruption in Yellowstone's prehistoric past.
"Yellowstone is much larger than any other volcanic feature in North America," says geophysicist Bob Smith of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory and the University of Utah. "People don't realize this." |
So basically, it's Mount Saint Helens times... thousands. If anyone knows or can recall the Mt. Saint Helends eruption, you'd know that it was really terrible.
| Quote: |
| At the other extreme is the Yellowstone eruption of 2.1 million years ago, which is described on the VEI as an eight: mega-colossal, with a towering ash cloud 10 miles high that pours out at least a thousand cubic miles of ash. That Yellowstone eruption had 10 times the ejected material as a VEI 7 volcano, which modern humans have never seen either. |
VEI = Volcano Explosivity Index, which is like a Richter Scale for volcanoes.
I found this statement interesting as well:
| Quote: |
| No eruptions of this magnitude have happened since the dawn of civilization, about 10,000 years ago — which is lucky for us, and perhaps one reason civilization has been able to develop. |
Okay, so in conclusion, there is evidence of a Supervolcano under Yellowstone. We have no idea when it could erupt. I believe scientistis agree on anywhere between the next 30 minutes and 50,000 years, but that number may have changed since the documentary.
I'm fascinated by volcanoes, I hope to watch an eruption some day.
If you're interested, you can read the full 4 pages of information about the Yellowstone supervolcano at the Discovery Channel website. They actually did a really good docu-drama of this, must say I was impressed and terrified. They presented it as a documentary after it had happened, interspersed with some of the 'real' victims stories. Very thought provoking.
xx
Yes, there was an interesing Horizon program on the issue not too long ago.
Basically, yes, when Yellowstone goes up (and it is 'when' NOT 'if', it will be around 1000 times the size of the Mt St Helens explosion - minimum).
It will have international effects, never mind national, and a large part of the US will be covered by the ash and other debris that is generated.
Regards
Chris A friend told me about this and how science is unable to predict an explosion of Yellowstone. Anytime now! But how soon will it happen?
| bluedragon wrote: |
science is unable to predict an explosion of Yellowstone.
how soon will it happen? |
How the heck are we supposed to answer that? | bluedragon wrote: |
| A friend told me about this and how science is unable to predict an explosion of Yellowstone. Anytime now! But how soon will it happen? |
According to geologists it will start on Tuesday January 13th at 2.13pm.
There is a margin for error of plus or minus 1 minute on that though, so it is not yet a firm prediction, merely a working estimate..
ChrisLets see what we can find about supervolcano at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano
| Quote: |
| A supervolcano refers to a volcano that produces the largest and most voluminous kinds of eruption on Earth. The actual explosivity of these eruptions varies, but the sheer volume of extruded magma is enough to radically alter the landscape and severely impact global climate for years, with a cataclysmic effect on life (see also Nuclear winter). |
Here's list of known eruptions:
| Quote: |
VEI-8 volcanic events have included eruptions at the following locations. Estimates of the volume of erupted material are given in parentheses.
* Lake Taupo, North Island, New Zealand - 26,500 years ago (1,170 km³)
* Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia - 75,000 years ago (2,800 km³)
* Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming, United States - 2.2 million years ago (2,500 km³) and 640,000 years ago (1,000 km³)
* La Garita Caldera, Colorado, United States - 27 million years ago (5,000 km³)
The Lake Toba eruption plunged the Earth into a volcanic winter, eradicating an estimated 60%[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]of the human population, and was responsible for the formation of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere and the Millennial Ice Age.
Many other supermassive eruptions have also occurred in the geological past. Those listed below measured 7 on the VEI scale. Most of these were larger than Tambora's eruption in 1815, which was the largest eruption in recorded history.
* Aira Caldera, Kyūshū, Japan - 22,000 years ago (110 km³)
* Aso, Kyūshū, Japan - four large explosive eruptions between 300,000 to 80,000 years ago (Total volume 600 km³)
* Kikai Caldera, Ryūkyū Islands, Japan - 6,300 years ago (150 km³ (bulk volume))
* Lake Taupo, North Island, New Zealand - 181 AD (100 km³)
* Long Valley Caldera, California, United States - 760,000 years ago (600 km³)
* Valle Grande, New Mexico, United States - 1.12 million years ago (~600 km³)
* Bruneau-Jarbidge, Idaho, United States - 10-12 million years ago (>250 km³) (responsible for the Ashfall Fossil Beds 1,600 km to the east[6])
For large flood basalt eruptions, see large igneous province. |
The scary thing is this thing probably will go off...not like other crazy asteroid risk theories where each asteroid has a really tiny chance of hitting and none of them might hit at all.
One day it's there...the next day BHOOOMF. Ouch.
Its not a question of if but when. The Yellowstone eruptions are on average between 600,000 to 900,000 years apart, it last erupted 640,000 years ago.
The risk of a major asteroid impact is much grater than you think.
| The Conspirator wrote: |
The risk of a major asteroid impact is much grater than you think. |
Where did that come from? Since when is this thread about asteroids?
I feel safe in Ireland thousands of miles away.
But then again, this will affect the atmosphere globally, like sulphuric rain over the world, dust and ash reducing sunlight etc.
The earth is cooling and volcanos are much less active than before. I'm not sure what effect a lower volcanism trend would have on explosions a couple miillion years ago, but it is happening and will continue to happen.
| Quote: |
I feel safe in Ireland thousands of miles away.
But then again, this will affect the atmosphere globally, like sulphuric rain over the world, dust and ash reducing sunlight etc. |
I saw this one docmentary (im pretty sure it was the history channel) a while back that said that such an eruption has the possibility in worst case to start a chain of events that would end life on earth; so in that case you're out of luck. | ocalhoun wrote: |
| The Conspirator wrote: |
The risk of a major asteroid impact is much grater than you think. |
Where did that come from? Since when is this thread about asteroids?
|
joxang is the one who brought it up.
| joxang wrote: |
| not like other crazy asteroid risk theories where each asteroid has a really tiny chance of hitting and none of them might hit at all. |
| nilsmo wrote: |
| The earth is cooling and volcanos are much less active than before. I'm not sure what effect a lower volcanism trend would have on explosions a couple miillion years ago, but it is happening and will continue to happen. |
Where did you hear that?
Its possible that the earth is cooling but that cooling would take billions of years.I've seen several of those specials too on the Supervolcano. They say that we're "overdue" for one, but seriously, what're the odds that it'll happen in our lifetime?
it is very disturbing to me to have to read about notifications in 'miles', 'cubic yards' and other prehistorical ways to describe distance and content.
I like where this thread is going! The Yellowstone threat is an interesting one, to say the least... We can see it coming, but we can't give a reasonable time, nor can we do anything about it.
I'm not a very careful reader today, so I hope you'll forgive me if I'm repeating something mentioned above, but has anyone brought up the dead zones and closed trails in Yellowstone Park yet? This article might be interesting if it hasn't already shown up:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/62089/yellowstone_national_park_at_high_threat.html
...please ignore the fearmongering on page two, and the grammatical errors here and there. You might find better sources for yourself if you search "Yellowstone dead zone" on Google.
Cheers! Supervolcanoes... Yellowstone. Apparently it's one of a few on the planet, except the others aren't as active. Perhaps Yellowstone is the fire and brimstone armageddon referred to in Revelation?
I too have seen the Supervolcano docu-drama movie and the associated documentaries. I find it amazing that such a large volcano, one so different to all the other types, exists, and the devastation it would unleash, should it erupt.
They made a docu-movie about it on Discovery channel called SuperVolcano (I know, not very unique). It is shown in the movie that if it does erupt, there would be so much ash in the world that the temperatures would drop drastically. Pretty creepy in my opinion. It's cold enough here in the winter as it is.
I watched a documentary ages ago about this and the information is, quite frankly, frightening.
Apparently the amount of ash which is ejected into the atmosphere is so huge that a dust cloud could sweep over a large proportion of the world. Now this would obviously block out the sunlight and thus the temperature would decrease by up to 5 degrees centigrade (well at least we wouldn't have to worry about global warming any longer). So what does this mean? Well, some species of plants and animals will die out because of the decrease in temperature but more importantly: plants will not be able to photosynthesise to full capacity because there will not be enough sunlight, thus they will begin to die. The lack of vegetation would lead to the deaths of herbivores and then their predators, to the secondary consumers in the food chain, then the third etcetera. This would happen in the most affected areas, however things would still be able to live in less damaged places.
There is another problem which is produced by the cloud of ash. The documentary I watched gave a scenario which happened on a previous eruption, although their theory was in reality only a hypothesis. At exactly the same time as a previous eruption a large group of animals died (they found the mass 'graveyard' of fossils). No animal had any sign of damage on them, yet they were in range of the immediate effects of the dust cloud. Scientists [and other knowledgeable people] hypothesised that it was likely that the ash from the dust cloud had started to fall and the animals had breathed in tiny particles from it, these particles were sharp and cut the lungs of the animals when they breathed in. This meant that the animals started bleeding inside their lungs and thus drowned on their own blood. Lovely.
The effects of a super volcano eruption are huge in every field. The human population will plummet sharply and although this will probably be a good thing for the world and human race in the long run (if we survive, which I'm sure we will) it will be a devastating and deeply sorrowful and terrifying time for people all over the world.
I am only giving the worst possible outcomes of the eruption, really. But you can see the problems immediately. Scared? It's highly likely that none of us will live to witness this, however people will be around in the future, unless we kill ourselves before then, and they will suffer terribly. It's time we went to live in space stations, I think.
| ninjakannon wrote: |
I watched a documentary ages ago about this and the information is, quite frankly, frightening.
Apparently the amount of ash which is ejected into the atmosphere is so huge that a dust cloud could sweep over a large proportion of the world. Now this would obviously block out the sunlight and thus the temperature would decrease by up to 5 degrees centigrade (well at least we wouldn't have to worry about global warming any longer). So what does this mean? Well, some species of plants and animals will die out because of the decrease in temperature but more importantly: plants will not be able to photosynthesise to full capacity because there will not be enough sunlight, thus they will begin to die. The lack of vegetation would lead to the deaths of herbivores and then their predators, to the secondary consumers in the food chain, then the third etcetera. This would happen in the most affected areas, however things would still be able to live in less damaged places.
There is another problem which is produced by the cloud of ash. The documentary I watched gave a scenario which happened on a previous eruption, although their theory was in reality only a hypothesis. At exactly the same time as a previous eruption a large group of animals died (they found the mass 'graveyard' of fossils). No animal had any sign of damage on them, yet they were in range of the immediate effects of the dust cloud. Scientists [and other knowledgeable people] hypothesised that it was likely that the ash from the dust cloud had started to fall and the animals had breathed in tiny particles from it, these particles were sharp and cut the lungs of the animals when they breathed in. This meant that the animals started bleeding inside their lungs and thus drowned on their own blood. Lovely.
The effects of a super volcano eruption are huge in every field. The human population will plummet sharply and although this will probably be a good thing for the world and human race in the long run (if we survive, which I'm sure we will) it will be a devastating and deeply sorrowful and terrifying time for people all over the world.
I am only giving the worst possible outcomes of the eruption, really. But you can see the problems immediately. Scared? It's highly likely that none of us will live to witness this, however people will be around in the future, unless we kill ourselves before then, and they will suffer terribly. It's time we went to live in space stations, I think. |
Well you need to remember back then humans didn't hunt animals into extinction every year either. I believe we've gone up to the point of killing off animals every 100 years as opposed to 1000? Something like that in my book anyways. | QrafTee wrote: |
| Well you need to remember back then humans didn't hunt animals into extinction every year either. I believe we've gone up to the point of killing off animals every 100 years as opposed to 1000? Something like that in my book anyways. |
Well back then there were no humans at all, just - according to the theory of evolution - our ancestors, whatever they were at that time. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what the relevance of your point is. Where does the idea come in? You are right but how does that affect anything here? Sorry If I have missed something.
And the point on 'killing off animals'. The more humans there are the faster the rate of extinction; a number of species will become extinct every day and many of these creatures live (or lived) in the rainforests. Changing climate is the biggest killer of animals these days. There is some shocking statistic about how many animals will die in the next X number of years due to global warming but I can bet a super volcano would be more devastating than that.If you want to know more about "Super Volcanos" click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano
Guess it is pretty scary thinking that IF yellowstone should one day blow, the entire US continent would be covered in ash. And the worst thing is the lack of methods to stop it happening.
Nature *is* God.
National Geographic documentary called Earth Shocks portrayed the destructive impact of the rapid eruption of Lake Toba some 75,000 years ago and caused a phenomenon known as the Millennial Ice Age that lasted for 1000 years and wiped out more than 60% of the global population of the time. | Blu_Spykz wrote: |
| Guess it is pretty scary thinking that IF yellowstone should one day blow, the entire US continent would be covered in ash. And the worst thing is the lack of methods to stop it happening. |
It's not if but when, Blu_Spykz.
Furthermore, there is no way to stop it. The pressure will build and build in the magma chamber until it blows, the only way to stop it from exploding with such devastating force would be to relieve the pressure from the magma chamber and unfortunately this is impossible. To do this you would have to make an opening into it but this would more than likely cause it to erupt.
What can be done, however, is to decide on the best possible procedures to implement once it really does go off.
