This isn't a new concept for me, but since it hasn't been discussed yet I thought I'd bring it up. Everyone knows of Yellowstone Park, right? Well the entire thing is one massive reservoir of magma. The volcano beneath it is so large that it couldn't even be seen. Only when satellite images were taken, could scientists see the scale of this caldera. It is a super volcano, the most destructive force on this planet. The problem is scientists have discovered that the ground in Yellowstone is 74cm higher than it was in 1923 - indicating a massive swelling underneath the park. The reservoir is filling with magma at an alarming rate. The volcano erupts with a near-clockwork cycle of every 600,000 years. The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago, hence - we are overdue for annihilation. Why? The thousands of cubic kilometres of ash that would shoot into the atmosphere could block out light from the sun, making global temperatures plummet. Nuclear winter. Thoughts?
And just when I thought the world was at the worse crisis stage... Wouldn't it be possible for the magma to have undergone some kind of transformation? Maybe 640,000 years ago, something happened within the volcano to alter the activeness of it. Or maybe the increase in the amount of land has had a factor in this. I'm honestly not too sure as of now. I'm going to try to study this up later, then edit in a better, more substantial opinion then.
When I read this topic I just thought 'Ah, eff, we're screwed' and look who put the topic up! XP Anyways, yep does sound odd it hasn't happened yet, mother nature is usually right on time with her disasters. Maybe it's human interventiopn all over the country that has affected the timing of eruption. I don't know much about the topic myself. Do you know how large of an effect area it could be?
Enough to cover with ashes the whole planet's atmosphere. Not too sure if it's gonna errupt. Normally it should have errupted 40.000 years ago right? But it didn't. Guess there were change of plans.
In addition to this, the last major meteor impact was 65 million years ago. According to the past record of impacts, we are well overdue for another one of those. Plus the ever-looming threat of nuclear war, and the impending environmental catastrophe, plus the Fundies saying Armageddon is coming... It seems we're screwed in far more ways than one. :D But, more on topic, even if that super-volcano does erupt, it won't be the end of our race. We'll find a way to survive, just like we survived the last Ice Age. Hell, it may be that the only habitable areas remaining might be Africa, Australia, and parts of Antarctica, but somehow, some amount of humanity will survive. We have proven, again and again, that we are the most adaptive race on the planet, able to survive in almost any climate, from Ice Age Europe to the Sahara.
You are right. There is a chance we may survive, even if within minutes of the eruption tens of thousands would be dead. Around 74,000 years ago, a supervolcano called Toba erupted in Indonesia. Due to the volcanic winter, the human population was scraped down to a few thousand individuals. To answer Peace-and-War, one thousand cubic kilometres of lava would pour out of the volcano, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer 5 inches thick. MuffinMan was accurate about the entire Earth's atmosphere being enveloped in ashes. Who knows, maybe we're safe. Bob Christiansen, now retired, suspects the supervolcano may be safely bottled up. I think they should find a way to empty its contents little by little, if that's possible. ^^;
Oh, great. Global annihilation sounds so much fun. But seriously, my only thoughts on this is that, if scientists have found out about this now, and see how alarming it could actually be, they're probably taking action right now. Maybe there's a way to drill into the ground to release some of the magma so that it will go back down and not burst?
I read an article about this a while ago; I believe they mentioned that it looked like some of the magma was crystallizing and the magma chamber was slowly cooling off. And the fact that it's 40,000 years overdue hopefully means its no longer active. But the ground still rising isn't good :/ Just in case, we'd better establish some colonies on Mars.
Just you wait, in a year or so I'm sure there will be cheesy movies about this. Uh, if we're still around by then. It is a truly scary thought though, that it could blow up at any moment. Like HigherTides, I would imagine with today's technology scientists could think of some way to drill into Yellowstone to release a bunch of the pressure, gases, and magma to at least put off the eruption (if it really is on the verge of happening); I don't really know anything about that sort of thing though, so who knows. If the thing about the magma covering the entire U.S. is true though, then that means that this entire country will be completely annihilated if it erupts (without even a chance for survivors like other countries). If THAT isn't a scary thought, I don't know what is.
So you believe in possibilism. That's good. I personally think that this won't happen. And if it does it won't be as big of a deal as we think it will be. If this is going to be such an issue, then why haven't they evacuated the area? They evacuated the area around Mt. St Helens. Volcano eruptions are easier to predict than earthquakes, I think.
Hmm, interesting for sure, and I guess worrying won't help. Ok, so I may be wrong here but aren't volcnoes a release of pressure and gas in the earth and also key to creating more land masses as the earth expands. I mean, the Earth is always expanding, right? And volcanes are a part of that system?
Maybe. The cost of doing so would be the issue. Also, what if tapping into the magma caused it to erupt prematurely?
i think that it went through a transformation i dont think that it'll erupt if it does then yes we are all screwed as if global warning wasnt bad enough...
I saw a preview of something about this when I saw District 9, and he was in yellowstone. Maybe, but then again, there's many of "end of the world" theories that have been proven wrong, so I guess we'll see.
maybe the mass increase in high buildings weigh down the eruption and stop it from anilalating everything hence the sweeling hope it doesn't erupt and distroy the natural beauty of the place I'm one for natural beauty lol
There are so many possible disasters that could end/cause mass disruption to us that if you worry about them all then you will never get out of bed in the morning. When it comes to nature we can't really say for definite that THIS will happen THEN and we cannot predict events to precise times. Nature does not work that way. For sure we can theorise and we can guess, but that doesn't mean that if events do not occur according to our calculations that it is nature that is acting wrong. We don't control nature to that degree. I personally do not think we are "overdue" for an erruption as it were, I think there will be another eruption at some point in the future, but I think that when it happens it will happen when it wants to happen and not just because we as humans old it that it must. ^ this too.
well i've done extensive research on the subject and my country, ireland will not be directly effected so i don't have to worry but the prospect is quiet fasinating. The human race has spent enough time in this world so if we are to be killed off then so be it. It's possible to prevent it though, it is something people always have done and because of this there is always the prospect the human race will never end which is a much less favourable option in my opinion.
