Yellowstone Supervolcano Larger Than First Thought 451
drewtheman writes "New studies of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park shows the plume and the magma chamber under the volcano are larger than first thought and contradicts claims that only shallow hot rock exists. University of Utah research professor of geophysics Robert Smith led four separate studies that verify a plume of hot and molten rock at least 410 miles deep that rises at an angle from the northwest."
Multitalented! (Score:3, Funny)
University of Utah research professor of geophysics Robert Smith led four separate studies
Abstract:
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Okay, what???
Re:Multitalented! (Score:4, Informative)
Robert Smith is the singer of The Cure, "The first time I saw lightning strike, I saw it underground." is a line in a Cure song ("Hot Hot Hot" I believe.)
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I wonder if he fought Mecha-Barbara Streisand while he was doing those studies.
I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:2)
and probably seeing the sun.
If that goes off, waiting for a world killing asteroid won't be necessary.
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yellowstone has gone off in the past and it didn't kill off all the large land animals, sure it screwed up North America for a whiel and lowered global temps several degrees, but it isn't the end of the world.
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Meh, doesn't have to kill off everything to doom the human race.
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Let's send all the volcanoes to secret prisons in eastern Europe. In fact, we'd better pick up the earthquake faults just to be sure. And ban nail clippers again.
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:4, Funny)
We need to strike preemptively. War On Seismology! Nuke Yellowstone today!
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Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if society totally collapsed, there would be enough information left over for people to rebuild eventually.
The problem as I see it is that the Earth we've created isn't the Earth it was 100 years ago. Asssume for a moment that the population is reduced to 10% of what it is now. Would there be enough resources to keep all of our nuclear reactors, chemical plants, etc from leaking unprecidented amounts of poison into the environment. While the orignal volcano/virus/starvation/flood/PickYourCatastrophe probably wouldn't finish us off, perhaps the slow rotting of our own creations would.
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So far I don't think we've done or created anything that comes near to the effect of natural disasters such as a volcano or meteor strike or tsuname or... If humans are gone, the nuclear reactors left won't have any significant effect on wildlife I think, other than a few fishes with 3 eyes.
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Depends who you talk to. [abc.net.au]
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Curiously, I could not locate the paper referred to in the link you pointed out.
I did find this paper [royalsocie...ishing.org] talking about two particular bird species that seemed to avoid nesting in highly contaminated sites, which factor might be reflected in the study your article quoted.
Your study quoted "some areas with hundreds of animals per square meter, others with none". I can think of examples of both: right on an ant hill; and the middle of an abandoned paved lot. Without actually looking at the study, it's hard to
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Yes, very informative, moderators.
I think he's probably referring to this [wikipedia.org] accident. According to Wikipedia, the estimates of the death toll seem to range from 15000 to 35000. That's only "millions" in RIAA math.
Despite our best efforts, man-made disasters are pitiful compared to what nature has managed to do.
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:4, Funny)
Despite our best efforts, man-made disasters are pitiful compared to what nature has managed to do.
We can do better! I know we can! We just need the drive and the will.
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If this went off and killed, say 65% of the North American population (I won't go 90% because not even an all out nuclear exchange with the USSR would have killed 90%). Yes, there would be enough resources to keep things in check.
Chemical plants aren't the issue, its the nuclear cooling ponds from what I've read and seen on TV. There isn't much around Yellowstone to be consumed by lava, its going to be the ash fall out that is the real killer here. I have faith, the big chemical, nuclear and power companies
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If this went off and killed, say 65% of the North American population (I won't go 90% because not even an all out nuclear exchange with the USSR would have killed 90%). Yes, there would be enough resources to keep things in check.
I wonder how correct you are... probably not at all. It's not just the explosion (to which our nukes pale in comparison - I mean, c'mon, really... nukes dont reduce mountains to nothing... Yellowstone has, on more than one occassion, leaving basins and lakes where there were mountains at one time).
It's much of the other factors that will kill off more than 65% of life worldwide (not just in North America). We've had smaller eruptions by other volcanoes that we are pretty sure have accounted for 65% worldw
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You do realize that at least two of Yellowstone's previous eruptions are more powerful than every nuclear weapon we have times TEN. Or a "measly" 875,000 Megatons...
Check this out for some great comparisons [statemaster.com] of the relative power of volcanoes, nukes, bombs, etc...
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:5, Informative)
This is exactly right. That's why radon gas, which is radioactive, is so incredibly dangerous: every time it seeps into someone's basement, it literally blasts the occupants' DNA to pieces, though slowly. So instead of whole subdivisions of people dying quickly from this radon gas, they turn into flesh-eating zombies, and infect people in surrounding homes and developments.
Luckily, our government has been very good at containing these zombie outbreaks, eliminating all the zombies, and keeping the whole thing very quiet to avoid public hysteria. That's why you never hear about it.
Don't even get me started about the zombism caused by the radiation from dental X-rays. There's a conspiracy by the ADA (American Dental Association) to hide the truth about all the people turned into zombies by dental X-rays.
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Eddie Izzard was right!
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Re: I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:2)
sure it screwed up North America for a whiel and lowered global temps several degrees, but it isn't the end of the world.
In fact, it will actually help with the global warming problem!
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Well, it sure is good to know that not "all the large land animals" will necessarily be killed off. I think it's a good bet that such an eruption would mean at least the end of human civilisation (if not human extinction).
But no, the Earth would still keep orbiting the sun, if that comforts you ;-)
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It won't mean human extinction. Period.
It may or may not mean the end of human civilization (for the time being). Whether it actually does depends on just how dependent the rest of the world is on the USA. If the collapse of the USA disrupts the rest of civilization enough to bring the whole house of cards crashing down, then civilzation falls.
If, on the other hand, the world has su
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Tambora's [wikipedia.org] 1815 eruption seems to have led to a Little Ice Age [wikipedia.org]. It was a seven on the Volcanic Explosivity Index [wikipedia.org].
Yellowstone rates an eight, at ten times the magnitude.
"A few years" of hardship seems like a really conservative estimate.
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, that's not quite true. An eruption of the magnitude of some of Yellowstone's earlier ones is believed to be a mass extinction event.
So, yes, it wont kill off all the large land animals... it will only kill off most of them (studies show figures speculating 70-90%). Sadly, I have yet to see a study that shows how much more of the human population will be killed off by each other in the fight for resources.
It is also believed that such an eruption will kill off most plant life on the planet, which will then take years to regenerate. While the initial explosion may only kill off millions or hundreds of millions, it is the subsequent damage that will cause the mass extinction event. Once the plantlife near entirely dies out, so do most of the livestock, and thus us (those of us who survive the initial explosion). In addition, our current infrastructure is not designed to filter out the massive amounts of sulfides that will rain into the water for many years... ie: very little drinking water for most. If you have drinking water provided by ground wells in deep aquifers, great! But most drinking water is provided by reservoirs, which will become highly contaminated.
Keep in mind, Yellowstone has had numerous "violent" (understatement) eruptions... most people forget about the truly "violent" ones such as the one 600,000 years ago.
Two of Yellowstone's caldera forming eruptions are among the largest eruptions ever known to have occurred on Earth. Smaller eruptions by other volcanoes have accounted for mass extinction events hitting the 65-70% extinction level.
Most people don't have the slightest clue just how explosive an eruption Yellowstone can have (or has had in the past). A simple look at the geography (or lack thereof) of the region that Yellowstone's caldera sits in and that the hotspot has moved through will reveal this though. As a matter of fact, that lack of geography is what originally led explorers to not notice the massive caldera... it wasnt until one realized that the lack of specific geological features (and realizing the massive lake he was observing were the rest of the geological features) was indeed the volcano itself.
For instance, what you will find missing along the Yellowstone hotspot's line of travel are... oh, such minor things as... an entire section of the mountain range it sits in.
Unlike "conventional" volcanoes, Yellowstone does not build mountains... it reduces them to near nothingness, leaving depressions in the earth where they used to exist. The hotspot alone is bigger than some of our smaller states, and the caldera is big enough to fit whole towns and small cities in it - or even decent sized cities/boroughs... like Brooklyn - IN the caldera. 34 MILES by 45 MILES in size... and that doesnt count the hotspot below it which is much more massive - that's just the size of the "opening" created in the last volcanic eruption.
I guess, technically, you are correct... it wont be the end of the world... but it will be the end of almost all land dwelling life on it. Then again, there are theories that a truly catostrophic eruption may be the end, or close to it, of the world, as the stresses shift the planet's orbit and/or create severe damage to the tectonic plates...
Re:I'm gonna miss yellowstone.. (Score:4, Interesting)
For instance, what you will find missing along the Yellowstone hotspot's line of travel are... oh, such minor things as... an entire section of the mountain range it sits in.
I was wondering if you were exaggerating, so I looked up the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=yellowstone&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.60973,63.28125&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Yellowstone,+Portland,+Multnomah,+Oregon&ll=43.47684,-113.411865&spn=5.133958,7.910156&t=p&z=7 [google.com]
Yeah, that's just a little bit creepy right there.
(Compare with http://geodyn.ess.ucla.edu/~hernlund/humphreys-nicemap.jpg [ucla.edu])
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You should stop getting your science facts from news outlets.
It won't destroy the world, or even come close to killing a significant percentage of people.
It might kill, maybe, 100 Million people with another 20 million as the results of disruption of service.
And that's worse case, OMG I can't believe we were this unlucky scenario.
Unless of course we are bombarded by magic neutrinos from the sun.
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Studies, by scientists who have studied Yellowstone for years, disagree. An eruption like the one 640,000 years ago, is expected to be a worldwide mass extinction event. The fallout effects (acid rain, no sunlight for years, etc) are also expected to be quite global. The effect to plant life is expected to be near extinction. The effect to animal life (especially when you realize there is little plant life to sustain the herbivores and omnivores) is thus near extinction.
Current estimates, by people far mo
Is there any way to avoid disaster? (Score:2, Interesting)
IF this thing will eventually blow (spewing movie credits all over the northern hemisphere, some might say), is there a way to stop it from happening? Can the volcano be "tapped" to allow the molten rock to ooze out and relieve some of the pressure? Can underground formations be "cracked" with explosives to, perhaps, add additional room underground for all this hot rock?
While we all go on about climate change, this is something that (from what I understand) could pretty much wipe out North America, and may
Re:Is there any way to avoid disaster? (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe in 400 to 500 years we will have developed the science. Right now, all we can do is pray.
Re:Is there any way to avoid disaster? (Score:5, Informative)
A megaton (of TNT) is 4.184 × 1015 joules = 4.184 petajoules . You average Hydrogen bomb has about one megaton. The world has only about 70,000 nuclear bombs (rough estimate, USSR has about 16,000, the USA has about 33,000 - and most are much less powerful than an Hydrogen bomb). So the previous eruption was equal to more than 10 times ALL the existing nuclear bombs.
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The US has 9,000 and Russia about 13,000 and about 23,000 total warheads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons [wikipedia.org]
Nearly all the US warheads are "hydrogen" bombs, fission-fusion. The most common yield for American bombs is 330-350kt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_bomb#Hydrogen_bombs [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W78 [wikipedia.org]
Cruise missile warheads are lower, 10-150kt.
The US no longer has a 1mt warhead
Russian warheads are higher yield do to inaccurate missiles, most seem to be 500-60
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Humans survived the 640,000 years ago eruption, they will survive again... how and in what shape... that's another story...
Re:Is there any way to avoid disaster? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2008JD011652.shtml [agu.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory [wikipedia.org]
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Wow, never talk about nuclear bombs again. every single 'fact' you have is wrong.
According to the CDI: http://www.cdi.org/pdfs/USNuclearArsenal08.pdf [cdi.org] most US warheads currently deployed are in the 100-300 KT yield range.
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Now if it were the case that you had to tap away all of that power, then perhaps it can't be done. But presumably, you only have to tap it away as fast as it is accumulating. We don't mind if it is only 100 Somethings away from blowing, if its only accumulating at 0.5 Somethings per day and we can let off that energy at 0.6 Somethings per day.
Disclaimer: I have no idea what the 'Something's are.
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In turn, a trillion
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Maybe there will just be additional pressure built up over more time, with a bigger explosion this time around...
Anyway, to get back to the idea of pressure being vented... this is currently happening to some extent as fumaroles vent, geysers erupt, hills rise and subsi
Re:Is there any way to avoid disaster? (Score:5, Funny)
This is because the hotspot now sits under a much thicker crust (the rocky mountains). But as I saw one geologist quoted, "I wouldn't bet on it either way".
OK, so I thought I was pretty safe from the Yellowstone Supervolcano where I live, and now you tell me I have to worry about a frikkin Rocky Mountain landing on me?
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Controlled release? (Score:2)
So is it even theoretically possible to, say, dig a big shaft into it to slowly release the pressure under controlled conditions over decades or centuries?
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Theoretically? Yes. Realistically? Not in our lifetime.
Re:Controlled release? (Score:5, Insightful)
Likely, if you forget about Murphy...
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A better solution would be to install several large geothermal power generation plants...
But this would "ruin" the park.
Ahh well who wants to save the world and get nearly free electricity out of the deal.
Re:Controlled release? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Which would only tap a tiny fraction of the energy theer anyway. Whilst an erruption would take out the power plants if it did errupt there probably wouldn't be much further need for them.
Re:Controlled release? (Score:5, Funny)
Now imagine that oil is hot enough to melt the rock you're standing on, and the machinery you just used to dig the well.
Oh, and there's 800,000 cubic miles of it. (rounded from D x W x W (410*45*45) from article, not accurate).
Re:Controlled release? (Score:5, Funny)
Ok, you've convinced me.
Where do we start the drilling?
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Dig? (Score:2)
We can drill 12km down and that is a very small hole indeed, the distances involved here are a bit larger. And that is DRILL, not dig. If you drilled into lava/magma the drillbit would melt, get stuck and the hole be plugged with your drill. Even if could drill a hollow hole, the moment the magma flowed in it would cool and get stuck on its way up. It would be like trying to bleed to dead from a needle puncture. (which doesn't happen by the way, before I start a new internet scare)
Digging that deep, well t
Re:Dig? (Score:5, Informative)
You don't have to drill till its hot enough for your drillbit to melt.
You just have to drill till it's hot enough to turn pressurized water into superheated steam. Then you have a source of energy.
The other option of course is to drill without a drillbit:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090912144809.htm [sciencedaily.com]
Deeper (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, the worlds' deepest mine is just under *4* kilometres deep, so you're off by a bit there. The miners are being extra vigilant for tectonics, and their biggest challenge (apart from fresh air to breathe) is heat coming off the tunnel walls.
Scary stuff, if you ask me.
Pretty deep (Score:5, Interesting)
That is pretty deep, it extends well below the earths crust which is about 30 miles thick below the continents, so it goes well into the mantle of the earth. This could be a similar hotspot feature to hawaii, however may manifest in a different way on the thicker continental crust compared to the oceanic crust beneath hawaii. Other similar features of this kind are the New England Hotspot which produces a series of volcanos in Quebec which have become series of hills including the one Montreal is named after. That hotspot is now inactive and off the coast of africa (the crust moved, not the hotspot).
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So many extinction level events yet we linger (Score:5, Insightful)
Pick one and we're screwed. Sadly all we care about it the latest trinket to amuse our monkey brains while we imagine we are safe from all danger. somehow. maybe.
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Bacteria will survive and we'll be back again some other day. The wheel can be a ho, but the world keeps spinning around.
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Of course one problem is that all of the easily obtainable resources will have already been strip mined by us, so that by the time something crawls back out of the muck it will be considerably harder to advance past the club and stick phase.
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Of course one problem is that all of the easily obtainable resources will have already been strip mined by us, so that by the time something crawls back out of the muck it will be considerably harder to advance past the club and stick phase.
Assuming a civilization ending destruction occurs, that doesn't necessarily mean all the resources are gone. Instead future generations will be processing garbage from landfills, electronic waste, decrepit buildings, seawater and the like. If anything it seems like they will have a head start with all sorts of processed metal prevalent in cities. Cars, wires, pipes, cans, coins, etc..
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Yes.
People need to realize this right now. What are we still doing here? Doesn't it seem a little stupid to keep all this intelligence on one tiny, tiny planet? We're the only conscious things we know of, but any number of frequent, devastating events could end that forever. You'd think getting off this rock would be humanity's first priority.
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Re:So many extinction level events yet we linger (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if you've noticed, but we have managed to get off this rock. The problem is finding another rock that we can survive on. So far, even the most catastrophic disaster short of the sun blowing up will still leave the earth more likely to support humans than any other planet (or moon) we've discovered.
Re:So many extinction level events yet we linger (Score:4, Interesting)
In practically anthing shy of an extinction-level event, the biggest danger won't be the event - it'll be ourselves. No doubt enough heavy weapons will survive the event that the next round of major death will be the survivors duking it out. We won't be able to begin the business of survival, let along climbing back, until the heavy weapons are spent, or at least until the long-distance delivery mechanisms are.
The other thing to realize is that we've used up the easy resources building our civilization. If we destroy our technological base, it'll still be easy getting basics like iron and aluminum, but the only easy petrochemicals will be those in storage tanks. Even peak-oil deniers would agree that the oil that is left requires higher technology than Jed Clampett had, in order to reach it. Climbing back would be a tough process.
As for other rocks, they may not be as inherently survivable as Earth, even considering a disaster, but presumably the survivor-violence would be removed. The real problem is building a local technology base sufficient to sustain life in a hostile environment, absent help from Earth.
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Well if you mean the easily accessible resources that the government will let you get at, then yes... There is still plenty of easily accessible oil in places the government won't let us tap (ANWAR, West Coast, etc) and coal will likely be available in very large quantities that can't be used today because of environmental regulations, but in a post-apocalyptic anarchy period, would be burned like there's no tomorrow.
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And what should we do? (Score:2)
If we had been scared we would still be in our tree screaming "the ground is lava!"
There are two kinds of monkeys, those that cower and those that say "here kitty kitty" to the tiger... oh and the third is the one who runs the fastest once the tiger pounces. The heroes are the first to land on Omaha, the ones who had sons were in the second wave.
Re:So many extinction level events yet we linger (Score:5, Insightful)
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but this is precisely the type of event that would hit really hard and fast.
Not really. While a supervolcano is a different beast from a regular volcano, it is worth noting that we have normally have years of warning with respect to regular volcanoes. The real problem is that we don't know the effects of an eruption or the exact timing. So for example, we would know that an eruption is coming, but not whether it'd be like one of the more mundane eruptions of the past few hundred thousand years or a major caldera event.
even if we were to assume a small number of months of warning and build up time it's highly unlikely we would actually get it done before the big eruption.
That'd be more than enough time to move people out of the danger
Pressure Release = Bad? (Score:3, Insightful)
Several have suggested that we try to come up with a way to release pressure from the Super Volcano, but I can't see that helpful. The life of this planet depends upon this changes in the mantel and the crust, and trying to divert what happens in nature may cause larger problems for our population on this planet later. It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms. Yes we are evolved, and that would lead many to argue this point, but the reality is we are like ant to this planet. We've infested it with our population growths. The planet will do what the planet will do, and we're really just along for the ride.
I'm not a volcano expert nor am I any renound scientist, I'm an average person looking at the possiblity of life as I know it ceasing to exist. I don't look forward to a massive kill-off of the many life-forms on this planet. I don't, but I do feel that by messing with nature we will cause more problems than if we don't. But hey, this is only my take on the situation described. Meh!
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It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms. Yes we are evolved, and that would lead many to argue this point, but the reality is we are like ant to this planet.
Thats a bit of an underestimate of our impact on the planet. We've spread across and drastically altered much of its surface far quicker than any other lifeform I can think of. The original oxygen-producing bacteria, mosses, trees, and grass may all have had more significant effects than we have, but we've been rushing to catch up pretty well so far.
but I do feel that by messing with nature we will cause more problems than if we don't. But hey, this is only my take on the situation described. Meh!
Well, in the face of extinction, its usually ok (as far as I'm concerned) to mess with stuff you don't understand in the hope of avoiding it. If said extinction
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It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms.
How is that amazing? It's perfectly natural for any species to act that way, for one simple reason: those which don't have such trait, don't survive long.
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Are you actually suggesting that given the choice between an explosion 10 times larger than all the worlds nuclear arsenal combined or the possibility that maybe defusing it would cause a problem thousands or millions of years down the road, you would actually choose the civilization ending explosion? Ok, maybe not civilization ending, but it's surely going to kill a good half billion people almost instantly, and another 4 billion on top of that due to food shortages, tidal waves, and warfare (limited reso
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Any significent change is going to involve dealing with amounts of energy which make nuclear weapons look like toys.
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It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms.
Then it would amaze you that my life is more important than yours, at least to me? I think most people operate under the belief that humans are more important than animals because, well, we evolved.
Here's my list of most importance:
Me, my (future)progeny, and my spouse
My family and friends
People closely sharing my culture, ideals and/or geographic area
Human beings in general
Animals (especially domesticated animals)
Plants
Basically, I'm willing to sacrifice the well-being of any item on the list in favor of w
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It amazes me that we think as a people that our lives on this planet are somehow more significant than other life forms.
I'm not that concerned about "our lives on this planet". I'm concerned about MY life on this planet. In fact, I am VERY concerned about MY life on this planet. It is one of my greatest concerns, everything else being in a very far second. Most of the people I've talked with feel the same way.
We all do agree, though, that your selflessness is very touching.
When's it going to blow? (Score:2)
Not if, but when is it going to blow? That's what matters most. Are we any closer to understanding that?
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But it is entirely possible that it won't be a super eruption, but just a smaller blow. These have happened some times within the last 100.000 years.
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Maybe.
There's correlation between deep solar minima and volcanic activity/earthquakes:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003ESASP.535..393S [harvard.edu]
We're currently in the deepest solar minima for a century or two, maybe longer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2009/12/could-the-sun-cast-a-shadow-on.shtml [bbc.co.uk]
Luckily, I live very very far away from Yellowstone myself. You? ;)
Re:When's it going to blow? (Score:5, Interesting)
No one lives far away enough from Yellowstone if there is a supervolcano eruption.
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Luckily, I live very very far away from Yellowstone myself. You? ;)
I'm concerned that none of us are far enough away...
Tambora's [wikipedia.org] 1815 eruption seems to have led to a Little Ice Age [wikipedia.org]. It was a seven on the Volcanic Explosivity Index [wikipedia.org].
Yellowstone rates an eight, at ten times the magnitude.
I wonder if there's a correlation here? Size of the plume vs the magnitude of the eruption?
Permian Mass Extinction.... (Score:2)
Well, that's great. We'll get the CO2 balanced and spend the trillions to do that, deal with overpopulation, and then the Earth will open up a Siberian traps style lava flow and kill 90% of all life on the planet.
No need for elevated alarm... (Score:5, Informative)
Someone write "we are all going to die!" (Score:5, Insightful)
So I can mod you insightful!
(Oh wait...)
Explains the "Craters of the Moon" (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if such eruptions help to vent pressure from the underlying magma body postponing a eruption or contrarily are indications of building pressure in the underlying magma body that will only be released with a supervolcano eruption.
Re:Release Some Steam (Score:5, Interesting)
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If this thing blows, it wouldn't do "serious" damage to the "country"; it would catastrophic damage to North America, pretty much wiping out some 400 million people within a few hours. The United States, Canada, and Mexico would no longer be going concerns. The resulting power vacuum in world affairs would have dire and impossible to predict results for the rest of the planet (keep in mind that much of the US military would still exist and various admirals and generals might have different ideas of how to p
Re:Release Some Steam (Score:4, Funny)
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats
living together... mass hysteria!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
With the loss of New York as a financial center
New York would survive. Estimates are that it would be covered in about 35 cm of ash.
Here are pictures of two eruptions of the Yellowstone supervolcano: The Huckleberry Ridge Tuff [wikipedia.org] and the Lava Creek Tuff. [wikipedia.org] The areas shown are not wind-blown ash; that's where the pyroclastic ash will reach, at about 200 miles per hour and over 1000 degrees F. You can see that everyone from Nevada to Missouri is dead.
But New York...eh, they might make it. Poor bastards.
Re: (Score:2)
It would be far far worse. Cooling the mass of magma would release massive quantities of gas. That gas release would be so massive it would trigger an eruption. Only a fool would try to drill directly into a magma pocket.
Re: (Score:2)
If that goes off, there are at least two reasons I won't be worrying about global warming anymore.
Re:Controlled release actually not that implausibl (Score:4, Interesting)
Quite simply, the last super-eruption contained more than 10 times the force of all the nuclear bombs ever created.
The ENTIRE US consumes about 400 petajoules of energy each year.
But the Yellowstone explosion that formed the crater used up 3,661,000 petajoules. That's over 9 thousand times the energy. So lets say we really go all out and find a way to safely handle ALL the energy the US normally uses in a year. We drain 400 petajoules each year from yellowstone. Granted, most of that power would be wasted as you lose energy when you transport it long distances, but lets pretend we care more about removing the energy than using it. I doubt we COULD drain that much energy, but lets assume we could.
So, each year we drain about 1/9000th of the energy. Assuming it is about to blow (as it has been a VERY long time since it has blown), in 4,500 years, we will have halved the size of the explosion.
Re:Controlled release actually not that implausibl (Score:4, Interesting)
Supervolcanoes can occur when magma in the Earth rises into the crust from a hotspot but is unable to break through the crust
I think that is the crux of the solution right there. You don't need or even want to concern yourself with the whole area of molten rock that is under Yellowstone. You want to tap into and bleed off energy from the hotspots. Do this using lateral drilling with liquid cooled drillbits. Once you hit molten stuff, you will basically be creating a pipe of hardened magma as you progress through the center of the hotspot. If the surrounding heat threatens to overpower your cooling system, just stop the progression of the drill until the cooling system can make the pipe walls thicker.
The removed heat can be used to drive turbines to create electricity.