Yellowstone Supervolcano Making Strange Rumblings

Frosty Piss writes "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. Significant activity continues beneath the surface. And the activity has been increasing lately, scientists have discovered. In addition, the nearby Teton Range of mountains is somehow getting shorter. The findings, reported this month in the Journal of Journal of Geophysical Research, suggest that a slow and gradual movement of a volcano over time can shape a landscape more than a violent eruption."

I'm scared

[0racle]

I mean it, I'm scared.

How much warning?

[MontyApollo]

How much warning will it likely give before it does erupt? Years, months, or days?

ease the pressure

[Chicken04GTO]

I wonder if it would be a good idea to discuss ways to relieve some of the pressure through drilling or mini nukes or something.

Awesome.

[teamhasnoi]

If it blows, there's a good chance the park won't be so crowded that year. I could finally go!

Build more geothermal power plants

[WindBourne]

If the volcano is coming alive, perhaps, we can dump some of the heat off by simply doing a lot more geothermal power plants. So far, the ones that they have set up there are wet ones that waste the water there. But if they build it so that it recycles or simply is treated as a dry plant, then we can use it to create giga watts of energy AND escape the heat from below.

Re:Fact for the day

[Anonymous Coward]

"Actually, I always thought it was funny that there are 3 Grand Tetons. Whoever the Frenchman was that named that range had been watching too much Total Recall."

Yeah, either that or Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (see Miss Eccentrica Gallumbits).

Re:Build more geothermal power plants

[WindBourne]

Actually, it is not the heat that they are worried about. Most of the geothermal plants have been going for the cheap way, which is to simply use the heated water there and allow it to escape. The re-injection or even using ammonia in a closed loop system is a bit more expensive, but they will not use water. Once you start using the heat as long as it does not harm old faithful or other geyser, then things will be ok.

Re:I'm scared

[Anonymous Coward]

"Yellowstone could blow up tomorrow, or it could blow up in 17,000 years."

Correct, and it could be another 160,000 years.

Last huge eruptions:
640,000 years ago
1,300,000 years ago
2,100,000 years ago

Last 2 time gaps:
660,000 years
800,000 years

I don't know where the "600,000 years" often-quoted average number came from, this is too small based on recent history.

Anyone losing sleep over this is a lunatic.

Much more possible is a smaller eruption. Of course, even a "small" Mt. St. Helens size event is pretty disruptive.

Re:How much warning?

[alienmole]

Yellowstone is a different type of volcano than Mt. St. Helens, though, and it may not give as much warning. We know there's a magma chamber there, and all it needs is the right kind of crack in the crust to expose the magma to atmospheric pressure, at which point the gas dissolved in the magma causes an explosion. I think the grandparent has a point, in that the events we're seeing now could in fact be a prelude to an upcoming eruption, but they could also just be normal activity. We may not know for sure which it is, ahead of time, because we've never observed a volcano like this erupting before.

Of course, IANAVolcanologist, all I know is what I saw on the one BBC show about it.

Discovery Channel Virtual Supervolcano

[Kram_Gunderson]

The Discovery Channel's website has a pretty neat and informative Flash presentation [discovery.com] on the Yellowstone hotspot.

Re:I'm scared

[Anonymous Monkey]

Clear the ash? I remember when Mt. St Helens blew. Every one was flipping about how it would devastate the crops, and that it was the end of the world!!! Then harvest time came, turns out volcanic ash is the best thing for plants since the advent of light. In fact, I have a friend with a house plant potted in ash from that eruption. It is one of the most healthy strong plants I have ever seen. I'm looking forward to that much ash.